Court postpones Facebook, Twitter ban lawsuit

Dina Amr
1 Min Read
TO GO WITH Afghanistan-unrest-social-media,FEATURE by Usman Sharifi In this picture taken on July 22, 2012, an Afghan ethnic Hazara woman browses the Facebook website at the Young Women For Change internet cafe, Afghanistan's first women-only net cafe, in Kabul. Ten years after the fall of the Taliban, who banned modern technology as un-Islamic, social media in Afghanistan are booming as politicians, warlords -- even the militants themselves -- rush to get their message across. AFP PHOTO/ SHAH Marai

The Administrative Court adjourned on Tuesday the lawsuit demanding the closure of social media networks Facebook and Twitter to 31 August.

The lawsuit filed by lawyer Mohamed Hamed Salem called for the closure of social networking sites as “they incite violence”.

The lawsuit argued that before the 25 January Revolution in Egypt, foreign intelligence services used social networks “to ignite demonstrations and incite acts of violence, murder, and torching public and private property”.

Salem also argued that those sites are operating without a license and have become a platform for rumours, and that there is no control on them or any attempt to verify those published rumours.

Furthermore, the lawyer pointed out that the social networks provide terrorists with a medium to create fake accounts for the purpose of spreading rumours and fraud, and inciting and planning terrorist attacks within the state.

In August 2015, Egypt’s new anti-terrorism law was introduced, setting a minimum prison sentence of five years for individuals who use social media and communication networks to incite “terrorist acts”. In recent months, numerous arrests have been made of people accused of inciting terrorism through social media.

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