Twitter has been blocked in Egypt as a result of massive protests arranged via social-networking sites.

"We can confirm that Twitter was blocked in Egypt around 8am PT today," Twitter confirmed on the @twitterglobalpr feed Tuesday evening. "It's impacting both Twitter.com & applications. We believe that the open exchange of info & views benefits societies and helps govts. better connect w/ their people."

The ban had been widely reported yesterday, but a spokesperson from Twitter had previously been coy about confirming it. Instead she pointed to a site that monitors Internet access around the world, the Herdict Report, which affirmed that the site had been blocked. On Tuesday, @HerdictReport said that Twitter was inaccessible six times, but as of publication time, that number has surged to 50.

"We prefer users in Egypt (or elsewhere) to speak for how Twitter is being used (or not) instead of us," read another @twitterglobalpr Tweet.

Demonstrations organized via Facebook and Twitter brought thousands into the streets of Cairo to protest failing economic policies, government corruption, and to call for an end of the nearly 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 90,000 people had signed up to protest through a Facebook group called "We Are All Khaled Said," named after an activist who was reportedly beaten to death by police. While the ban on Twitter has extended to the physical site, the mobile site, and third-party clients, Facebook remains unaffected. Currently, there is limited access to Twitter through Web proxies.

Protests in Egypt were inspired in part by the uprising staged in Tunisia that ousted autocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month. Twitter also played a part in an uprising in Iran last year.