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Published
July 21, 2018 07:11:16
The Egyptian Parliament pbaded a bill targeting popular social media accounts that the authorities accuse of publishing "false news", the latest movement in a five-year-old campaign.
New Bill Identifies Social Media Accounts With More Than 5,000 Followers As Media
The legislation was pbaded Monday night by the chamber resolutely pro-government, although the details of the new draft of law only appeared on Wednesday, personal social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers like the media and empowered the authorities to block them on the basis of the publication of "false news".
There was no elaboration on what is or is not considered as "
The bill has yet to be ratified by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, which is obvious since such bills are often inspired by his government.
million. Sisi won a second four-year term in March after running virtually unopposed.
In 2013, as defense minister, he led the military ouster of a freely elected but divorced Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi
. behind a 2011 uprising that toppled the predecessor of Mr. Morsi, Hosni Mubarak
"A sad day for the press"
Under the administration of Mr. Sisi, hundreds of websites, including those of major media and human rights organizations, were blocked .
The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression ATFE), a non-governmental organization that tracks the sites concerned with the help of software that monitors outages, claims the Access to 497 platforms, including information sites, blogs, proxies and producers of VPN services blocked since May 2017.
The Egyptian government has become increasingly aggressive with regard to concerns the digital rights of its citizens and their right to access the Internet.
The authorities claimed that such sites supported "terrorism" or reported "false news".
According to the Reporters Without Borders defense group, Egypt was ranked 161st out of 180 countries according to the 2017 Press Freedom Index. According to the new legislation, the power to block popular accounts will revert to the country's main media regulator, handpicked by the president.
He would also have the power to file criminal complaints against platforms and individuals accused of inciting people to violate the laws "and" defamation or discrimination against individuals and religions. "
Prominent journalists have denounced the bill as unconstitutional and a violation of the fundamental freedoms of the press, claiming that they grant extensive powers to the authorities to censor the press, revoke media licenses and restrict work. Journalists.
"It's a sad day for the press," said Yahia Kalash, former head of the journalists' union, also bans the creation of online media without a government license and empowers media regulators. to block existing online media as a refuge for young writers and liberal activists who escape government restrictions on freedom of expression
AP / ABC [19659030] Topics:
social media,
internet culture,
world politics,
Egypt
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