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Censorship Government

Egypt Fights Terrorism By Censoring Web Sites, Threatening Jail Time For Accessing Them (apnews.com) 67

An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press: Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has ratified an anti-cybercrime law that rights groups say paves the way for censoring online media. The law, published Saturday in the country's official gazette, empowers authorities to order the blocking of websites that publish content considered a threat to national security. Viewers attempting to access blocked sites can also be sentenced to one year in prison or fined up to EGP100,000 ($5,593) under the law. Last month, Egypt's parliament approved a bill placing personal social media accounts and websites with over 5,000 followers under the supervision of the top media authority, which can block them if they're found to be disseminating false news.
"Authorities say the new measures are needed to tackle instability and terrorism," reports the BBC.

"But human rights groups accuse the government of trying to crush all political dissent in the country."
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Egypt Fights Terrorism By Censoring Web Sites, Threatening Jail Time For Accessing Them

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  • So advertise sites, to attract people to them and fine them for going there, pretty cunning, the tah dah, internet equivalent of a speed trap ;D.

  • New Slogan (Score:4, Funny)

    by StikyPad ( 445176 ) on Sunday August 19, 2018 @12:09AM (#57152720) Homepage

    Egypt: Come for the antiquities, stay because you got black bagged at the airport [traveller.com.au] for insulting Egypt.

  • Egypt Fights Terrorism By Censoring Web Sites, Threatening Jail Time For Accessing Them

    INFORMATION wants to be free!
    Apparently you do not wish the same.

    So you have:

    • the Great Firewall of China, where you can't get there from here. (vs VPNs, offline)
    • You've got Egypt, where they're watching where you go. (DNS? Packet inspection? Web site logs?)
    • You've got Banned Books [bannedbooksweek.org] apparently in the US which removes or restricts access to paper books.
    • You've got the Index Librorum Prohibitorum from the Church which apparently isn't updated any more. (June 1966 maintained its moral force but no Spanish Inquisition visits.)
    • The Satanic Verses resulted in a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death.

    I'm sure there are other lists out there (Holy Bible, Mein Kampf, others.) My, there's a lot of naughty ideas out there. OTOH if you're actively promoting violence ("let's kill all of the bastards at noon tomorrow in the city") that's a little different.

    The bazaar of ideas shouldn't exchange books and paper for bullets and knives. And it doesn't, only marginalized PEOPLE do. Maybe there's a reason you're marginalized. Maybe there's not. But I suspect it's much easier to become that way if you've got "nothing else to lose" and "the bastards are going to hear me now!"

    • I want to point out that many times in history non-marginalized people are the ones doing the most killing. Helots vs Spartans, Americans vs native Americans, etc.
      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        You always find lots of true believers for the most demented ideologies. Add a few sadists (also readily available) and you can organize any type of slaughter desired.

      • Only because they have the power to do the killing. If you went back in a time machine and gave the native Americans modern machine weapons and a stack of ammo, you can be sure they would show no more mercy towards the Europeans than the Europeans showed towards them. That is just human nature, and it is not easily changed.

    • You've got Banned Books [bannedbooksweek.org] apparently in the US which removes or restricts access to paper books.

      I agree with your general sentiment, but you've got Banned Books Week very wrong. Take another look at your link :)

  • They compete with it using monopolist tactics. Remember that "terrorism" originally means a form of government that controls the population by using fear.

  • This is what all that stupid post-9/11 rhetoric gets you.
  • People do not realize this, but information forms a type of market. Whatever is rare will be more valuable, and whatever is easily accessed will be less so.

    In the same way The Anarchist's Cookbook was much-sought during the 1980s, if you make terrorism documents illegal, they will become valuable and people will pass them along more.

    The only real way to fight terrorism is to reveal the incompetence of terrorists at achieving anything but terror. Sort of like how the Soviets went out, and now no one but Amer

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      Hmm...I fail to see the swelling market in mathematics, physics, etc. among the populace because of their rarity. Maybe I don't have on the right glasses.

      • People get very interested in mathematics and physics when those can be used to justify belief in things they wish were true. If you can use physics to prove a crowd favorite like climate change, equality, transgenderism, consumerism, drinking being good for you, etc., there will be quite an audience.

  • They don’t tackle the real problem: that utterly retarded, stupid, idiotic, totalitarian, toxic and imperialistic religion that has rotten the brains of many people worldwide.
    • Don't puff too hard there, you'll blow a lung.
      You have no concept of governance, no hint as to the way of the world.
      You have no idea what religion is or what it is used for.

  • Censor the world! Only approved cats videos from now on.
  • Hard to tell if this is part of real censorship happening around the world or "Wah! Egypt rejected the enlightened rule of the Muslim Brotherhood!"

Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man -- who has no gills. -- Ambrose Bierce

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