Egypt waves through stricter social media laws – Amnesty International sees an “attack on freedom of expression”

The Egyptian government has passed a new law that allows significantly greater control over every citizen's social media activities.

Accounts on Facebook and Co that have more than 5,000 followers are now defined as “media outlets”. This means that they automatically fall under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council for the Administration of the Media (SCMR), which is responsible for regulating the national media landscape.

Officially, the new law is primarily intended to combat the spread of fake news, but critics are already warning of a new wave of censorship.

Extensive powers

“With this new law, the Egyptian government is attempting to further expand its already extensive powers to control, censor and block online social media and blogs,”

explains Najia Bounaim, campaigns director in the North Africa region at Amnesty International . At the same time, the competence of the SCMR will also be expanded.

“The regulatory authority can now even block websites and issue criminal charges against users if they are suspected of endangering national security, encouraging people to break the law or defaming individuals or religions,”

emphasizes the expert.

“Over the past year, Egyptian authorities have already blocked hundreds of websites without having any legal basis for doing so. With the passage of this law, this mass censorship will now be officially legalized, marking another step in an attack on the right to freedom of expression in Egypt."

said Bounaim.

Suppression of the media

According to Amnesty International, even without the new, even stricter laws, Egypt has one of the most repressive systems in the world when it comes to media and journalism.

As early as 2015, those in power made it a crime to publish news reports that contradict official government statements.

“They are free to use any means to suppress criticism and control the media,”

says the human rights organization.


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