Google and Twitter announced Friday they have reactivated a voice-tweet program to allow Syrians affected by the shutdown of the Internet to get messages out. The service allows people with a telephone connection to compose and send a tweet by speaking on their phones.

Google and Twitter said they were reactivating the system which was used in 2011 when the Internet was shut down in Egypt by authorities for several days. Google's David Torres acknowledged that many Syrians may not be able to use the service because telecom networks in the war-ravaged country are also functioning poorly. "But those who might be lucky enough to have a voice connection can still use Speak2Tweet by simply leaving a voicemail," he said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012