Egypt YouTube block to be decided in September

A Cairo court will give a ruling on blocking YouTube in September. (File/AFP)
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  • YouTube is the second-most used social media platform in Egypt
  • In June 2018 Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled to block the platform temporarily for 30 days

DUBAI: A Cairo court will give a ruling on blocking YouTube in September.

In June 2018 Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled to block the platform temporarily for 30 days. The decision was in response to a lawsuit filed by lawyer Mohamed Hamid Salem in 2013 against a video called “Innocence of Muslims,” which was originally published in 2012 on YouTube and denigrated Prophet Muhammad.

In 2013, a lower administrative court had ordered that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology block YouTube, but the case was appealed and its ruling stayed during the appeal process. 

The ministry at the time said it would be impossible to enforce the ruling without also disrupting Google’s search engine, incurring potentially huge costs and job losses in the Arab world’s most populous country, Reuters news agency reported.

YouTube is the second-most used social media platform in Egypt.