Once again I was planning to write something about certain that happened in Egypt then another thing more outrageous happened and made me change my mind.
From a couple of hours ago, Egypt's State news agency "MENA" announced that 21 websites were blocked in Egypt.
Quoting an unnamed source in a very short news on its wire service, MENA added that those were blocked because their content supported terrorism and radicalism as well deliberately spread lies.
The source added that among those blocked websites: Al-Jazeera.net, Al-Sharq TV channel, Misr Al-Arabia, Al-Shaab newspaper, Arabi 21, RSSD and Hamas Online.
He also said that the legal procedures were being followed regarding those websites.
The decision was taken in Egypt in less than 24 hours of blocking Al-Jazeera and Qatari news websites in Emirates, Saudi Arabia following their fake news media war in the midnight on Tuesday.
Now we discovered the rest of the Websites are Ikhwan Online, Egypt's Window, Al-Mesryoon, Huffington Post Arabic, Cairo Portal, Klmty , Hasam militant group official website, Horriya Post, Aswat Masriya and Mada Qatari Al-Watan, Qatari Al-Arab , Qatari Al-Sharq, Qatari El-Raya, Masr. (Yes , MADA MASR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Yes, Mada Masr; one of the finest Egyptian online independent English and Arabic news websites in Egypt and the Arab world is banned in its own country !!!!!!
Updated on 27 May: Daily News Egypt , Nabd news aggregator and Tor project website are blocked also in Egypt.
Many people including myself are extremely angry for banning Mada Masr and I am actually worried too because its journalists may pay a price as well for their great work.
Aside from the five Qatari media outlets above them Al-Jazeera and aside from Aswat Masriya and Mada Masr, most of the above websites got affiliations with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists in Egypt in a way or another.
Ironically this list includes Aswat Masriya, the once Reuters-affiliated Egyptian News website which closed down from two months ago. Currently, the archives of the website are still online !!!!
Another irony, Mada Masr, Misr Al-Arabia and Al-Mesryoon got a license officially to operate in Egypt.
Also, Al-Mesryoon got a daily printed newspaper !!
On the other hand, we got Hasam militant group which claimed responsibility for a number of attacks targeting security forces, mostly policemen since September 2016.
This is the only case I understand why the government would want to block a website.
Nevertheless, I do not know or understand on what legal basis the government decided to take this move. Is it the emergency law ??
This is a very bad sign especially if you connect it with the ongoing crackdown against political activists and members of opposition parties in the past three weeks.
We are back to use VPN and proxies once again !!!
This is not good at all.
All support to my dear friends in Mada Masr.
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| A familiar scene now |
Quoting an unnamed source in a very short news on its wire service, MENA added that those were blocked because their content supported terrorism and radicalism as well deliberately spread lies.
The source added that among those blocked websites: Al-Jazeera.net, Al-Sharq TV channel, Misr Al-Arabia, Al-Shaab newspaper, Arabi 21, RSSD and Hamas Online.
He also said that the legal procedures were being followed regarding those websites.
The decision was taken in Egypt in less than 24 hours of blocking Al-Jazeera and Qatari news websites in Emirates, Saudi Arabia following their fake news media war in the midnight on Tuesday.
Now we discovered the rest of the Websites are Ikhwan Online, Egypt's Window, Al-Mesryoon, Huffington Post Arabic, Cairo Portal, Klmty , Hasam militant group official website, Horriya Post, Aswat Masriya and Mada Qatari Al-Watan, Qatari Al-Arab , Qatari Al-Sharq, Qatari El-Raya, Masr. (Yes , MADA MASR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Yes, Mada Masr; one of the finest Egyptian online independent English and Arabic news websites in Egypt and the Arab world is banned in its own country !!!!!!
Updated on 27 May: Daily News Egypt , Nabd news aggregator and Tor project website are blocked also in Egypt.
Many people including myself are extremely angry for banning Mada Masr and I am actually worried too because its journalists may pay a price as well for their great work.
Aside from the five Qatari media outlets above them Al-Jazeera and aside from Aswat Masriya and Mada Masr, most of the above websites got affiliations with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists in Egypt in a way or another.
Ironically this list includes Aswat Masriya, the once Reuters-affiliated Egyptian News website which closed down from two months ago. Currently, the archives of the website are still online !!!!
Another irony, Mada Masr, Misr Al-Arabia and Al-Mesryoon got a license officially to operate in Egypt.
Also, Al-Mesryoon got a daily printed newspaper !!
On the other hand, we got Hasam militant group which claimed responsibility for a number of attacks targeting security forces, mostly policemen since September 2016.
This is the only case I understand why the government would want to block a website.
Nevertheless, I do not know or understand on what legal basis the government decided to take this move. Is it the emergency law ??
This is a very bad sign especially if you connect it with the ongoing crackdown against political activists and members of opposition parties in the past three weeks.
We are back to use VPN and proxies once again !!!
This is not good at all.
All support to my dear friends in Mada Masr.
Sad :( Sounds like Donald J. Trump and his pretenses to hide under the auspices of "Fake News" what he himself does.
ReplyDeleteThey are best friends already !!
DeleteSound so crazy , and its just start
ReplyDeleteJust as Samy has said, it is just the start. This crack down is a pretext for what is worse. First, he will handover the Sinai islands (Tiran and Sanafer) to the Saudi herdsmen, Salman and his son.
ReplyDeleteSecond, with the ever increasing signs of his failure in running the country and incompetency of his military generals, he wants to silence every possible source of reason. He has the support of 95% of the people, using the tactics of fear. He just wants to avoid any chance of having this support dwindle. You would counter argue that by saying people are disgruntled about the economic policies. I would answer that, they have Iraq, Syria and Libya in mind. They say he is the lesser of two evils.
Third, after all, who cares about these websites? The 95% who support him never heard of these websites. Mada masr, huffintgon post, Daily News Egypt, El borsa? How big is the readership of these websites? Do you think the audience of Ahmed Mousa, readers of Khaled Salah, and followers of Amr Adib care about these websites? DO you think the masses in upper Egypt who cheers for the killing in Minya (yes, uneducated people in upper Egypt in one way or another support what happened in Minya, ignorance) even know how to read or write in Arabic, not English?
These websites cater for us only. It will never reach these people. People are uneducated and ignorant. They only care about their daily bread and perpetual safety.
Let's keep to our bubble and use anti-censorship means.