Egypt parliament bill to monitor social media

Cairo : The Egyptian parliament yesterday approved in a final reading a bill that would allow authorities to monitor social media users with the aim of combatting “fake news”, the legislature said. The bill was backed by two thirds of parliament’s 596 members and it will now be sent to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to be ratified. Under the new law, people whose social media accounts have more than 5,000 followers could be placed under the supervision of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulations. This would encompass websites, blogs and personal accounts.

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”. The government newspaper Al-Ahram published on its portal details of the bill, including an amended article concerning the detention of journalists and a new one the import of satellite transmitters.