Social media sites impose danger on Egypt's security: MP

CAIRO – 27 May 2018: Deputy Member of Parliament's National Security and Defense Committee, Yehia al-Kedwany, stated that Social media sites impose danger on the country's security.

Explaining his opinion, he said that social media sites violate the country's traditions and laws as many supportive pages to terrorism are created without observation or censorship.

"I renew my request to the Ministry of Interior to follow up all the Facebook pages that are created to sell monuments, in addition to the pages inciting terrorism," he said to Egypt Today.

He added that suspicious Facebook pages must be closed immediately and that all pages should be observed and controlled to maintain the national security of the country, stressing that this cannot be considered as narrowing freedoms.

These pages threaten the national security of the country and must be confronted.
Parliament initialed a cybercrime bill on Monday aiming at combating the illegal use of computers and information networks.

The Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law defines commonly used terms such as “websites, traffic data, digital directory, personal statements and national security”.

The bill regulates Internet Service Providers’ (ISPs) activities and their obligation to provide national security authorities with information on users suspected of spreading terrorist and extremist ideologies via the internet. It also aims at securing personal data of internet users.

Accordingly, article 18 imposes a punishment of not less than one month in prison or a fine of not less than LE 50,000 ($2,800) and not more than LE 100,000 for anyone who hacks someone’s personal email, account or website.

Parliament also approved article 9 of the cybercrime law, allowing the Attorney General or specialized investigative authorities to impose travel bans on persons charged of committing or attempting to commit cybercrimes if enough evidence against them exists.

In April, Parliament’s Communications and Information Technology Committee approved the draft cybercrime law, which aims to pose surveillance on social media and limit the spread of fake news, particularly those that incite violence.

MP Nedal al-Saeed, head of the committee, said that he will submit a report about the cybercrime law to Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal to be discussed during the plenary session.
In an interview with Egypt Today, MP John Talaat, deputy head of the committee, said that the law would combat hackers, fake emails and credit card theft.

When asked about how the law helps fight terrorism, Talaat did not answer specifically. However, he said that if a website publishes a content that violates the cybercrime law, those responsible for the violation would be judged and the website would be banned if the violation is repeated.

In May 2017, Egyptian authorities decided to ban 21 news websites, including HuffPost Arabi, Qatari-based Al-Jazeera and Masr al-Arabiya, for "supporting terrorism and publishing fake news."