Egypt to block YouTube over blasphemous video

CAIRO – 27 May 2018: Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upheld on Saturday a lower court’s verdict that required the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to block Google’s video file-sharing site YouTube for one month over a video that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad, and ban all links that show it.

The initial verdict had been issued in 2013, but the case was appealed. Though, the Saturday ruling is considered final and cannot be appealed. The ministry of communication previously said it would be impossible to enforce the ruling without also disrupting Google's Internet search engine, incurring potentially huge costs and job losses in the country.

Mohamed Hamid Salem, a lawyer who filed the case in 2013, said he has demanded to block and ban YouTube site inside Egypt until it removes the blasphemous video and any other anti-Islam videos. He added that such blasphemous videos can lead to sectarian strife and frequent violence.

Salem pointed out that this video targets Muslim children to distort the image of the Prophet Muhammed in their minds.

The video called, "Innocence of Muslims" was made in California with private funding. It provoked a wave of anti-American unrest in Egypt and other Muslim countries when it was first released in 2012.