MP proposes forming government working groups to face rumors

CAIRO – 11 November 2019: A Parliament member on Monday proposed forming a working group from each body, a ministry, and an institution, to respond to rumors and lies circulated by terrorist groups who seek distorting the Egyptian state.

MP Ismail Nasr al-Din said many rumors and lies have been circulated by the terrorist group's relevant committees with the aim of undermining the national achievements and projects accomplished during the last five years.

He added that these entities target young people, in a failed attempt to spread despair and frustration among them. Nasr al-Din praised the role played by the state to refute these rumors every week and deny them altogether.

The Cabinet's media office has been keen to respond especially on Fridays to rumors circulated by social media all over the week, contact relevant ministries and publish their response on the news.

In July, last year, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned against false news clarifying that more than 21,000 rumors have been propagated over a period of three months. The president also asked people to be cautious of calls that inherently aim at the collapse of the Egyptian state. This came in the 66th anniversary of July 23 Revolution that ended the monarchy in 1952.

During his speech earlier in November on the occasion of Muslim's Al-Mawlid Al-Nabawi (Prophet Muhammad's Birthday), Sisi warning about the keenness of the outlawed groups, especially Muslim Brotherhood, to resort to spreading lies and false news, as well as using arms as part of their destruction plan.

In September, the Coordination Committee of Party’s Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP) issued a statement saying that the "Egyptian nation has demonstrated its full awareness of the devious methods and the use of modern technology or the media of terrorism to falsify facts."