Cairo urged to reject proposed online laws

Amnesty International has called for the Egyptian parliament to vote down proposed laws that would increase the government’s control over online content. Najia Bounaim, Amnesty's director of campaigns in North Africa, said these proposed laws would increase the Egyptian Government’s already broad powers to monitor, censor and block social media and blogs, as well as criminalise content that violated vaguely defined political, social or religious norms. ‘If the laws are passed, law enforcement will be able to monitor and block websites in the name of crime prevention and protection of national security. The laws on online media would also increase the regulation of the media to potentially block disfavoured sites,’ Bounaim said. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, the Egyptian authorities have blocked 500 websites, including independent news platforms and pages belonging to rights groups over the past year.