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Sunday, 27 May 2018

Top admin court orders one-month ban on YouTube over Prophet Mohammed video

Top court orders one-month ban on YouTube over 2012 Prophet Mohammed video: The Supreme Administrative Court upheld yesterday a 2013 lower court decision requiring the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to ban YouTube for one month over a film deemed insulting to Prophet Mohammed, Reuters reports. The 2012 low-budget film, “Innocence of Muslims,” had been met with criticism and protests in Egypt and other Muslim-majority countries. A lower administrative court had issued a ruling the following year for the video-sharing website to be blocked, but the NTRA appealed the decision and the ruling was stayed throughout the appeal process. “The [ICT] ministry at the time said it would be impossible to enforce the ruling without also disrupting Google’s Internet search engine, incurring potentially huge costs and job losses” in the country, the newswire says.

The NTRA is waiting to receive a copy of the ruling to look into how it can implement the ban, an unnamed NTRA official tells Youm7. That’s government-speak for we’re not going to move on this unless you do. Yesterday’s ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

The story topped coverage of Egypt in the foreign press, with most, including the Guardian and Haaretz, stressing the finality of the ruling.

YouTube still works in Egypt as of 5:01am CLT today.

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