Egypt

Telecom authority appeals YouTube ban

The National Telecom Regulatory Authority appealed Thursday a controversial month-long ban on popular video website YouTube.

Earlier in February, the Cairo Administrative Court said Egyptians should be banned from accessing YouTube over a US amateur film posted to the site last year that was deemed offensive to Islam. The prohibition extended to any other website or social media platform that had also posted the film, with the court calling on authorities to enforce the decision immediately.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the NTRA met with law experts to discuss implementing the ban.

Internet technology experts recently told Egypt Independent that enforcing the ban would be costly and difficult.

Google, which owns YouTube, has refused to remove the film from its pages despite international pressure, although the company blocked the video in Egypt, Libya and other Muslim countries. The Pakistani government banned YouTube last September over the production, which sparked an upsurge of anger in several predominantly Muslim countries including Egypt.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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