Court ruling over blocking Youtube in Egypt set on September 20

CAIRO- 26 July 2020:  A Cairo Administrative court set September 20 to say its ruling over blocking Youtube in Egypt, according to a statement from the court.

The lawsuit was filed by lawyer Mohamed Hamid Salem, who had previously won a court ruling to shut down Youtube in Egypt for a month after publishing a blasphemous video against Prophet Muhammad [Peace and Blessings be upon him] eight months ago.

In May 2017, a total of 21 websites were blocked in Egypt, including Qatar’s Aljazeera, as they published content that “supports terrorism and deliberately spreads lies.”

Egyptians have not been able to access pro-Islamists news websites and other venues such as Masr al-Arabia, Arabi 21, Al-Sharq, Klmty, al-Horria Post, Hasam Egypt, Ikhwan Online, Rassd, Cairo Portal, Egypt Window, as well as the website of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Aljazeera and several Qatari news websites, such as Al-Arab and Al-Watan, in addition to the Egyptian pro-Muslim Brotherhood website Rassd, have also been blocked in Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. The Gulf states' action comes after a statement that attacked them was attributed to Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.