According to Egyptian General Hani Abdellatif, the government will be monitoring social media accounts of its citizens as part of its effort to track what is happening on the Web. Abdellatif told Buzzfeed that the government's efforts has already led to the arrest of as many as 70 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group based on the evidence they have found on them online aside from the other Egyptian who are in custody for their "illegal statements" which range from atheist manifestos about the current senior leadership in the country.
On the other hand, Abdellatif dismissed the recent measure as a form of censorship. The general cited that the measure was done to implement the recently expanded laws already existing in Egyptian legislation on online behavior monitoring. He added, "This is not censorship. We are not against freedom or people's lives, we are just trying to develop the way we monitor crimes."
In the pas six months, Egyptians are being threatened of charges and potential jail time for their expressions or mere affiliations with hashtag campaigns and Facebook groups. Abdellatif said that the Egyptian government is currently addressing the using of "offensive" hashtags meant to mock new president and military strongman Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
He stated, "We are looking at those people who are insulting religion, taking part in terrorism and insulting public figures."
Local paper Al Watan published a supposed draft of the Egyptian interior ministry on Sunday explaining the latest regulations on social networking sites monitoring. According to the draft, the Egyptian government has a new system in place to monitor trending topics and words to pinpoint influential or prominent online users, who in turn will be monitored, including online relationships, in the hopes of cracking down entire groups who are against the new regime.
Egyptian lawyer Yasmin Hosam El Din argued that although the new monitoring campaign was illegal under the newly-established constitution of the country and that international accords have prevented the country from doing so, the country will not stop from monitoring its citizens as it has always have done in the past. She said, "Egyptian constitution gives the right for personal freedom, you can't interfere with that. Egyptians have international bills and agreement which force the Egyptian government not to interfere with our personal lives. They have been doing this for a long time quietly, without announcing it, now they are just being more public about it."
