{"id":11980,"date":"2018-08-18T19:26:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T19:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11980"},"modified":"2018-08-18T19:26:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T19:26:04","slug":"egypts-sisi-signs-new-law-tightening-government-control-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11980","title":{"rendered":"Egypt’s Sisi signs new law tightening government control online"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Egypt<\/a>\u00a0has rolled out a new law that allows authorities, through a judge, to order the blocking of websites\u00a0that “constitute a threat”<\/span>\u00a0to the state, as well as jail or fine those who run them. <\/span><\/p>\n

The “cybercrime”\u00a0<\/span>legislation, signed by\u00a0President\u00a0<\/span>Abdel Fattah el-Sisi<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday,\u00a0is one of a series of measures that critics have deplored as attacks against freedom of speech in the country.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The penalties also target those who<\/span>\u00a0intentionally or “in error without a valid reason” visit the banned websites considered by the authorities as threatening to Egypt’s\u00a0economic and national security interests<\/span>, according to the official gazette.<\/p>\n

The law, the first to seek to regulate cyberspace,<\/span>\u00a0imposes jail terms of up to five years and fines ranging between 10,000 and 20 million Egyptian pounds ($560 and $1.1m).<\/p>\n

Rulings can be appealed.<\/p>\n

Internet service providers are also required to supply authorities with the personal information of suspected offenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Egyptian legislators last month approved another bill that grants the state’s Supreme Council for Media Regulations the right to monitor social media users.<\/p>\n

Under that legislation, which Sisi has yet to approve, people whose social media<\/a> accounts have more than 5,000 followers could be placed under supervision.<\/p>\n

The council would be authorised to suspend or block any personal account which “publishes or broadcasts fake news or anything (information) inciting violating the law, violence or hatred”.<\/p>\n

Authorities have insisted that such measures are needed to help tackle instability and security threats in the country.<\/p>\n

But domestic and international rights activists regularly accuse the government of seeking to crush dissent by arresting activists and bloggers and blocking news sites.<\/p>\n

Egypt is currently placed 161st out of 180 countries in the press freedom rankings of global media rights organisation Reporters Without Borders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Egyptian activists say they are facing one of the worst crackdowns in the country’s history under Sisi and accuse the president of erasing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring<\/a> uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak<\/a>‘s 30-year rule.<\/p>\n

More than 500 websites have already been blocked in Egypt prior to the new law, according to the Cairo-based Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egypt\u00a0has rolled out a new law that allows authorities, through a judge, to order the blocking of websites\u00a0that “constitute a threat”\u00a0to the state, as well as jail or fine those who run them. The “cybercrime”\u00a0legislation, signed by\u00a0President\u00a0Abdel Fattah el-Sisi\u00a0on Saturday,\u00a0is one of a series of measures that critics have deplored as attacks against freedom of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}