Egypt: The Dark Tunnel

Overview

More banning, legal and security prosecutions of Internet activists are among the most prominent features of the situation of the internet in Egypt since 2017, where it has enacted special laws, formed governing councils, expanded security prosecutions and threats, and unreasonable or illogical blocking policies, even for a government hostile to freedom of expression.

Like other governments that are far from democracy, the Egyptian government wants to benefit from the Internet, but only according to its perception, which is the economy and the provision of the services it provides, without allowing citizens to benefit from it according to their perception, especially in the democratic struggle and expression of opinion. Therefore, Egypt became, with a population of about 100 million, almost vacant of genuinely independent journalists and the few credible professional websites are blocked.

Developments in the ICT sector

The telecommunications and information technology sector achieved higher growth than all other sectors in the country, reaching 16.4%. The share of the Telecommunications sector in the total local product reached about 8%. According to a report concerning the economic performance indicators for the second quarter of the current fiscal year 2018-2019 announced by the Ministry of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative reform.[1] However, this has not been reflected in the increasing number of Internet users, as their number stopped at about 56 million users. The weak service and the wider pursuit of social media critics, especially on Facebook, seem to have been one of the important reasons why the number of Internet users has been falling since 2017.

The legal environment of the ICT sector

With the Cybercrime Prevention Act passed in August 2018, about 45% of Egyptians “Internet users in Egypt” are subjected to various reasons for imprisonment and fines for having given their political or religious opinions on social media, as well as criminalizing many aspects of Internet use. Besides, press and media regulations included penalties for imprisonment, fines, and blocking of websites, blogs, and even personal pages.

The Official Gazette issue No. 32 bis.C, of August 14, 2018, published the provisions of Act No. 175 of 2018, known as combating cybercrime. After being discussed in the parliament in April of the same year, until the end of September 2019, its executive regulations have not been issued yet, and the law provides for 29 penalties, including imprisonment from 3 months up to 5 years, and also a fine from 10 thousand Egyptian pounds to 20 million Egyptian pounds. The law also prevents publishing any information about the army’s movements and conditions, or publishing the ideology of terrorist groups – a term not specified in the law – the law also allows the blocking of websites and pages based on those accusations, it carries clear aspects of a complete repression of the Internet[2], and gives the right to search, monitor and control the data to the judicial authorities. The law includes four sections containing 45 articles and its bylaws have not been issued yet.[3] The Parliament’s Telecommunications Committee has also approved a bill on the protection of personal data, which consists of 49 articles, among the most prominent articles of the bill producing a public economic body called “Protecting personal data center” specialized at organizing, providing and dealing with data, moreover, its members have the right of judiciary seizure. The bill would also punish the workers with a term of imprisonment of not less than one year and a fine of not less than one hundred thousand Egyptian pounds or more than one million Egyptian pounds, or one of these two penalties, in the event of collecting, exchanging, processing, disclosing, divulging or making personal data available by any means other than legally authorized or without the consent of the person concerned.[4] The Press and Media Organization Act and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation were also passed after President Sisi ratified it in August 2018. Law No. 180 of 2018 [5] provides some articles on online journalism, and many have generally called it the law that killed journalism.[6] The law considers any personal account on social media that has more than 5,000 followers a media platform applicable to media platforms rules, laws and penalties.[7]

Social networks

Among the 56 million Internet users in Egypt, Facebook is the leading website when it comes to the number of users in social networks, as the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information – ANRHI estimated them at 46 million, while YouTube is ranked the second with 35 million users, and the number of Twitter users increased to about 7.5 million.

Blocking and censorship

Blocking, banning and attempting to impose a totalblackout on freedom of information and to confiscate freedom of the Internet, this is a summary of the situation of blocking and censorship in Egypt from 2017 until today, with the number of blocked sites reaching a staggering number of more than 500 blocked websites in Egypt from May 2017 to September 2019.

Among them are 108 press websites, the rest between blogs, human rights websites and services websites. Among the most famous blocked press websites are all Al-Jazeera Media Group, Al-Doc and Al-Jazeera English, Arab 21 News website, Sassa Post, Mada Masr, Masr Al Arabiya, Al-Arabi newspaper’s website, which is basedin London, Al Badil, Al Bedaya, Bawabet Yanayer, and 6 April Youth Movement websites.

Services, such as the Tor browser website used by users around the world, have been blocked for a long time. In August 2017, Egyptian authorities began blocking websites that provide VPN and proxy services that help bypass the blocking, including many websites, some of which were already blocked before blocking! The (I2P) project website and the (Free Internet) projectwebsite were blocked. They are websites that help to use the Internet while keeping users private and anonymous. The Egyptian authorities also blocked human rights websites, especially the independent ones, including the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

The Egyptian authorities broke a record in the speed of blocking an opposition website, as the Egyptian authorities blocked the website of “Katib” only nine hours after it was launched.

Ministry of Education and the Online Examination System

The Ministry of Education tried to apply the online examination system using a special tablet system distributed to students. It started to examine the system with the first year students in secondary schools in their examinations.

The ministry failed to hold the Arabic language exam on schedule on 24 March 2019, and the examinations continued to be disrupted due to “the system failure”. Students complained that the electronic examination platform was not accessible in the new system, and the ministry explained this failure as “the System failed”[8]. The failure resulted in some demonstrations on May 21 in several governorates by secondary students who were subjected to security attacks and some students were arrested.[9]

Prosecution and security threats

Before the Cybercrime act was finally issued, we observed hundreds of cases of arrests and verdicts against activists, politicians, and citizens who expressed their opinion on their pages, and with charges related to the Internet and mass media in general, we try to mention some of what we observed. We cite some examples of “Misusing social media” and “Publishing false news” charges.

“La Wennabi Ya Abdo – No please Abdo”, a satirical campaign that was launched in November 2017 rejecting Sisi running for the elections for another presidential term. The founder of the campaign, journalist Ahmed Abdul Aziz, was arrested along with another 28 citizens on charges of”publishing false news”. The campaign spread widely on social media, planning to collect signatures against Sisi running the elections. However, members were all arrested and charged in case no. 1 of 2018, state security. Nine of the defendants were sentenced to 5 years, including the founder, and 12 were sentenced in absentia to five years, the other 5 were sentenced in absentia to 15 years including actor Hesham Abdul Hamid. Two were acquitted in absentia.
Case of “al-Karama”(Dignity) Party and “Al Tayyar Al Shaabi” (The Popular Current) Party, on the 25^th of January 2019, some activists and politicians gathered to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution in Al Karama Party headquarters. Two years later, 6 of Al Karama members were arrested. Afterward, other defendants were included in case no. 1739 of 2018 State Security. Accusations, in this case, are: publishing false news and social media misuse. The case is pending investigations.

Malak Al Kashef, Using a Facebook account to disrupt public order; is the charge for which Malak was arrested along with the charge of joining a terrorist group! Malak is a 19-year-old transgender girl. Malak Al Kashef was imprisoned in inappropriate circumstances because of her Facebook posts for about two months before being released in the same case; no. 1739 of 2018 State Security, in July 2019.
Case 621 of 2018 Supreme State Security, another case that began in early 2018, involving suspects at various times and involving publishing false news, including a blogger, a political activist, a dentist, a lawyer, a proofreader, and some public figures. It also included Mohammed Khaled, a student who was arrested on the background of a video posted on his Facebook page, criticizing the presidential elections, as Ahmed Moussa, a talk show host, instigated the authorities to arrest him, and he was arrested at the same night!
Amal Fathi, case no. 7991 of 2018 Maadi misdemeanors. She was arrested for posting a video criticizing aharassment incident she was subjected to and was emotional and criticized the country in general. She was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds. Accusations, as usual, are “publishing false news on the Internet”.
Syndicate activist, Sayeda Mohamed Fayed, and Wagdi Al Sayed Ali were arrested. Sayeda was included in case no. 29377 of 2018, Helwan misdemeanors. She was accused of publishing false news, for criticizing the nursing situation in Egypt on her personal Facebook account. While Wagdi was included in case no. 5053 of 2018, accused in the same incident of publishing false news.

Writer Mahmoud Mohamed Imam, a defendant in case no. 1959 of 2018, al Khosous administrative. Accused of misusing social media, for publishing posts criticizing the regime on his Facebook account. He was detained for one year and a half and the case is still pending investigations.

Mohamed Ramadan, a lawyer, and a human rights defender. He was arrested and included in case no. 140 of 2017, East of Alexandria felonies prosecutions. Charges are: insulting the president and misusing social media. He was sentenced in absentia to 10 years and house arrestfor 5 years. Along with preventing him from using social media for 5 years! He appealed to repeat procedures, the case was considered until June 2018, then the court dismissed considering the case pending the Constitutional Court’s decision in the case filed by the defendant’s lawyer.

At the end of the year 2018, Ramadan was rearrested in case no. 16576 of 2018 Awal Montazah, for publishing his photo on his account wearing a yellow vest, showing solidarity with the yellow vests movement in France. He was charged with publishing false news and inciting to demonstrate.

[1]General Authority for Information, Planning: The Communications and Information Technology sector tops the most developed sectors by 16.4%, published on 2 February 2019, http://www.sis.gov.eg/story/182320/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%ae%d8%b7%d9%8a%d8%b7-%d9%82%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa%d8%b5%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%88%d8%aa%d9%83%d9%86%d9%88%d9%84%d9%88%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b5%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%83%d8%ab%d8%b1-%d9%86%d9%85%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%8b-%d8%a8%d9%86%d8%b3%d8%a8%d8%a9-16.4%25?lang=ar accessed September 2019.

[2] https://www.anhri.info/?p=1176 Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, after the absence of independent press, Internet use has become a risk in Egypt an analysis of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information – ANRHI on the shortcomings of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, published September 19, 2018, Checked in September 2019.

[3], posted August 19, 2018, Al Youm Al Sabee: we publish the full text of the Cybercrime Prevention Law after the President’s ratification, https://www.youm7.com/story/2018/8/19/%d9%86%d9%86%d8%b4%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%86%d8%b5-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%84-%d9%84%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%81%d8%ad%d8%a9-%d8%ac%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%b1%d9%86%d8%aa-%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%aa%d8%b5%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%82-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a6%d9%8a%d8%b3/3916593 accessed September 2019.

[4] Al-Ahram Gate, details of the electronic Personal Data Protection Bill. Prison and a one million Egyptian pounds fine, published August 7, 2018, http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/1999248.aspx Checked in September 2019.

[5] Al Youm Al Sabee, Al-Sisi, approves the promulgation of the Law on the Organization of the Press and Information and the Supreme Council, posted September 1, 2018, https://www.youm7.com/story/2018/9/1/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%b3%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d8%b5%d8%af%d9%82-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%a5%d8%b5%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%b8%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d8%ad%d8%a7%d9%81%d8%a9-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b9%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%84%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%89/3933193 accessed September 2019

[6]ا Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, increasing anger… Democratic path in Egypt 2018

https://www.anhri.info/?p=4193، Checked in September 2019.

[7]France 24, Egypt: Social Media Users Control Act in force, published September 1, 2018, https://www.france24.com/ar/20180901-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%b1-%d8%b4%d8%a8%d9%83%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b5%d9%84-%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%82%d8%a8%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%b1%d9%84%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%aa%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b9%d9%8a, accessed September 2019.

[8]ا The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information; the Internet in the Arab world in the first quarter of 2019

، https://www.anhri.info/?p=7496 Checked in September 2019.

[9] Arabic Network for Human Rights Information: Workers protests indicator https://www.anhri.info/?p=8797 Checked in September 2019.