Internet In Egypt
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The
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
is accessible to the
majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...
of the population in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, whether via
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s,
internet cafe The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
s, or home connections.
Broadband Internet access In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide- bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Internet access. The transmission m ...
via
VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...
is widely available. Under the rule of
Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...
,
Internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as ''Wikipedia.org'', for example) but exceptionally may ...
and surveillance were severe, culminating in a brief total shutdown of the Internet in Egypt during the 2011 Revolution. Although Internet access was soon quickly restored following Mubarak's order that year, government censorship and surveillance later increased years later following the overthrow in 2013 of
Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...
to downgrade Egypt's
Internet freedom Internet censorship is the legal censorship, control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific Network domain, internet domains (such as ''Wikipedia.org'', for exam ...
rating from "partly free" in 2011 to "not free" in 2015, which the country has retained in subsequent reports, including the most recent in 2023. Under the presidency of Morsi's successor
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil El-Sisi (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has been serving as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. After the 2011 Egyptian revolution and 201 ...
, the ruling government has ramped up online censorship in Egypt. The government heavily censors online news websites, which has prompted the closure of many independent news outlets in Egypt.


Penetration

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
's internet penetration rate grew from less than one percent in 2000, to 5% in 2004, 24% in 2009, 54.6% in 2014, and 71.9% in 2022. Egypt has continued to grow internet penetration by investing in the
information and communications technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...
sector, spending in 2008 which grew to in 2011. ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is licensed under a
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
Attribution license''.
As part of the
Egyptian government The politics of Egypt takes place within the framework of a republican semi-presidential system of government. The current political system was established following the 2013 Egyptian military coup d'état, and the takeover of President Abdel ...
's ambitious program to expand access to information technology, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Egyptian National Post Organization, and the Computer and Software Department at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce signed an agreement to spread personal computers for every home in August 2008. The agreement is the second phase of a 2002 initiative and is part of the MCIT's strategy of increasing computer use throughout Egypt, focusing on socio-economically disadvantaged communities. The initiative includes offering discounts on computers and 512 kbit/s ADSL subscriptions for three years. Almost a million Egyptian households have broadband access due to sharing
VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...
lines. Of these, 63.4% share the connection with their neighbors; 81.9% of households that share lines share them with more than three other households. Egypt had more than 400,000 ADSL lines by the end of 2007, 75% of which were residential. More than one-fourth of Egyptian Internet users visit Internet cafés to get online.


Broadband access

Broadband Internet access was introduced commercially to
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
in 2000 as an
asymmetric digital subscriber line Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide ...
. The service was offered in select central offices in big cities such as
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
and
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
and gradually spread to cover more
governorates of Egypt Egypt is administratively organized under a dual system that may consist of either two or three tiers, with further subdivisions occasionally resulting in an additional layer. It follows a centralized system of local government, officially term ...
. There are numerous (220 according to regulatory authority numbers)
Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
s in Egypt offering an ADSL service. Seven companies own the infrastructure, known as class A ISPs: (Egynet, LINKdotNET, TE Data, NOL, Vodafone data, Noor communication and Yalla). Etisalat Egypt bought both NileOnli and Egynet to expand their Internet presence. They sell to class B ISPs which, in turn, one-fourth sell to the rest of the 208 ISPs. Broadband connections in Egypt vary in quality. Quality depends on the distance from the central loop office, the presence of ISP in that local loop, and the quality of the copper telephone line carrying the broadband connection. Internationally, Egypt is currently served with three international submarine cables: namely,
FLAG A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...
, SEA-ME-WE 3 and SEA-ME-WE 4. However, following the mass information blackout of early 2008, with the announcement of Telecom Egypt owned cable TE North and Orascom telecom owned
MENA The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together ...
, several other projects are planned to improve the resilience of the international broadband to make sure users internet connect do not go faulty.


Internet exchange points

Egypt has two
Internet exchange point Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of Internet Protocol, IP networking, allowing participant Internet service provider, Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are ...
s: Cairo Regional Internet Exchange (CR-IX) and Middle East Internet Exchange, the former carrying international, as well as domestic, services. Reports related to the 2011 Internet shutdown in Egypt refer to the "
Ramses Exchange The Ramses Exchange is a telecoms building in central Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglom ...
" as the location where the shutdown was affected. The Ramses Exchange, located on Ramses Street near the center of Cairo is the main "wire center" for Telecom Egypt, carrying not only municipal telecommunications traffic, but also serving as the main point of entry for international submarine fiber-optic circuits, back-hauled from landing stations near Alexandria. The Ramses Exchange is also the location of the CR-IX, the largest Internet exchange in North Africa or the Middle East.


Fair usage policy debate


Ministerial statement

The Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Tarek Kamel, said in the July 2007 news that the ADSL would be turned from Unlimited to Limited with a Quota at a starting price of for the 256k/64k and a 2 GB limit for the download and so on. The widespread use of local line sharing limited ISPs' subscribers' fiber-optic and increased the network's traffic burden. However, almost all the ADSL users, especially the students and users of unlimited ADSL, refused the offer. Most users had concluded that if this plan were to be imposed, they would cancel their subscriptions because they wanted the Internet to be unlimited. The plan was to start the limited ADSL Packages on 1 September 2007. However, it turned out that Tarek Kamel was to aim specific offerings at different price ranges for other individuals unable to subscribe to an unlimited package. As such, the unlimited packages remained as is and are available through all major ISPs with no changes in price, while the limited ADSL price ranges are now discounted, with the existing unlimited policies having no fair usage policy, except for ADSL2+.


Introduction of ADSL2+

In April 2008,
ADSL2+ G.992.5 (also referred to as ADSL2+, G.dmt.bis+, and G.adslplus) is an ITU-T standard for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband Internet access. The standard has a maximum theoretical downstream sync speed of 24 megabits per secon ...
was introduced in Egypt at speeds up to 24 mbit. Now, most ISPs have capped all the unlimited ADSL offerings to a quota of between 100 GB and 200 GB per month, calling it a Fair usage policy. All speeds from 1 mbit/256k up to 24 mbit are capped to up to 200 GB per month. ISPs stated that the 200 GB quota was huge, and users could download up to 60 large movies, 10,000 large songs,
browse Browsing is a kind of orienting strategy. It is supposed to identify something of relevance for the browsing organism. In context of humans, it is a metaphor taken from the animal kingdom. It is used, for example, about people browsing open sh ...
endlessly and send up to 2 million
email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
s a month. Most users are divided upon this cap, especially heavy P2P users. Going above the monthly quota would result in throttling down to unworkable speeds starting from at the highest 512 kbit/s to potentially far lower depending on the service provider and region for the rest of the month.


Introduction of VDSL2

On 21 May 2015, it introduced the VDSL service with speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s. This has been applied in the area of Madinaty as the first step to experiencing this new technology, which intends to popularize the country


Alternative offer

There is an alternative offer from 512k to 24 mbit, ranging from 2 GB a month to 200 GB a month as a fair usage coverage with reduced prices to encourage low-range users to uptake of broadband.


Confusion about capping

Most ISPs, even though they are capped to 40-150 GB a month, still claim the offers as unlimited. Also, companies use vague and inconclusive responses about the Fair Usage Policy and its implementation of different packages. The ISP's websites got the FUP in English and placed in hard-to-navigate places, plus most of the technical support and representatives are denying that any FUP is in place, which is felt by the end-user to be in place, possibly in fear of customers canceling their subscriptions at the thought of being capped.


Performance improvement

The service improved dramatically between 2007 and late 2009 due to the heavy investment of all parties involved in the provision of Internet infrastructure. According to NTRA, the total international bandwidth at the end of 2009 was 90458 MB and the number of ports was 970557. This is a dramatic increase from the first quarter of 2009 of only 16,995 MB. This means that the bandwidth made available to customers with telecommunication infrastructure had greatly increased.


2008 marine cable damage

On 30 January 2008, Internet service in Egypt and the
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
was affected by the breakage of two marine cables,
FLAG A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...
and SMW4, which connect Egypt to the worldwide Internet. TE Data users were not disconnected from the Internet since the company had a third international gateway to the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
, namely SMW3; however, they suffered from reduced
bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
until the issue was resolved. The local National Telecom Authority issued a decision for all ISPs to offer a free-of-charge month to all clients to compensate for the reduced quality of service during the outage.


Censorship

Although the Internet in Egypt was not directly censored under the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, his regime kept watch on the most critical bloggers and regularly arrested them. Censorship at a technological level during that time was mainly in the form of optional filters offered by Egyptian ISPs to block
pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
; TE Data offers Internet services with content controls that filter "all of the Internet's indecent content that might affect your children." In August 2009 the
OpenNet Initiative The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) was a joint project whose goal was to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. Started in 2002, the project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international netwo ...
reported finding no evidence of Internet filtering in Egypt in any of the four areas it monitors (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools).''ONI Country Profile: Egypt''
, OpenNet Initiative, 6 August 2009
Using data and information gathered during 2010, the status of Internet freedom in Egypt was classified as "Partly Free" in ''Freedom on the Net 2011'' by
Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...
."Country Report: Egypt"
, ''Freedom on the Net 2011'', Freedom House, 15 April 2011
The outcome of the
2011 Egyptian revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...
was initially interpreted as a chance to establish greater freedom of expression in Egypt, especially online. Reflecting these dramatic changes and opportunities in Egypt, in March 2011
Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
moved Egypt from its "Internet Enemies" list to its countries "under surveillance" list. In March 2012, Reporters Without Borders reported:


Censorship prior to 2011

In 2005, Egyptian authorities continued to both encourage and place restrictions on Internet use. For example, Egypt's Ministry of Interior ordered
Internet café An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a Coffeehouse, café (or a convenience store or a fully dedicated Internet access business) that provides the use of computers with high bandwidth Internet access on the payment of a fee. Usage ...
managers and owners to record their customers' names and ID numbers in February. It threatened to close the cafés if they refused to comply. The Cairo-based Arabic Network condemned this action for Human Rights Information, which described it as "a gross violation of the right to privacy." In August 2008, authorities increased the level of surveillance by demanding that Internet café customers provide their names, email addresses, and phone numbers to receive a text message on their smartphones containing a PIN that they can use to access the Internet. As the Egyptian
blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...
continued to grow, so did the Egyptian government's crackdown on bloggers and Internet users. For example, blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman Amer ("Kareem Amer") was sentenced in February 2007 to four years in prison for "incitement to hatred of Islam" on his blog and for insulting the president. He has become the symbol of online repression for the country's bloggers. Other Egyptian bloggers have also been arrested for online activities, and some have been sentenced to prison. One example is Mohamed Refaat, editor of the blog Matabbat (''matabbat.blogspot.com''), who was arrested in August 2008 under the state emergency law. He was charged with "offending the state institutions, destabilizing public security, and inciting others to demonstrate and strike via the Internet." In a landmark 2007 legal case, an administrative court rejected a lawsuit brought by a judge calling for the banning of 49 websites in Egypt. The court emphasized its support for freedom of expression as long as such websites do not harm the beliefs or public order. However, in May 2009, a Cairo court ruled that the Egyptian government must ban access to pornographic websites because they are deemed offensive to religion and society's values. The suit was filed by a lawyer who pointed out an Egyptian man and his wife who were sentenced to prison for starting a swingers club via the Internet as an example of "the dangers posed by such offensive Web sites." It remains to be seen whether the authorities will enforce this court order. Egypt has witnessed an increase in the use of
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
for social activism, which alerted the Egyptian government to the potential force of the site. As a result, there were rumors that it might be blocked, especially after a group of activists managed to recruit supporters using Facebook for the 2008 Egyptian general strike protesting against rising
food prices Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food di ...
and President Hosni Mubarak's government. On 28 March 2011, military officers arrested the 25-year-old blogger Maikel Nabil at his home in Cairo. The military prosecutor charged him with "insulting the military establishment" and "spreading false information" for blogs criticizing the Army's role during anti-government protests. On 10 April, a military court sentenced Nabil to three years in prison, in what
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
called a serious setback to freedom of expression in post-Mubarak Egypt. Not only was the sentence severe, but it was imposed on a civilian by a military tribunal after an unfair trial. Along with close to 2,000 other detainees, he was granted a pardon and released on 24 January 2012, having spent ten months behind bars. Immediately after his release, he once more began to challenge the legitimacy of the armed forces and criticize their record on the eve of the first anniversary of Egypt's revolution."Egypt Profile"
, Reporters Without Borders", March 2012
Another online activist who continued to challenge Egypt's censorship policies was Khaled Saeed, a young Alexandrian man who was beaten to death by police in June 2010 for posting a video on the Internet that exposed police corruption. His death inspired the creation of the Facebook page ''We are All Khaled Saeed'', which became a mobilizing and organizing online space. Other online activists were arrested and unjustly detained—including
Wael Ghonim Wael Ghonim ( ; born 23 December 1980) is an Internet activist and computer engineer with an interest in social entrepreneurship. In 2011, he became an international figure and galvanized pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt after his emot ...
, the founder and moderator of the ''We are All Khaled Saeed'' Facebook page.


Foreign assistance in surveillance

American company Narus, a subsidiary of Boeing Corporation, sold the Mubarak government surveillance equipment that helped identify dissidents during the 2011 revolution.


2011 Internet shutdown

The 2011 Egyptian protests began on 25 January 2011. As a result, on the 25th and 26 January, the Egyptian government blocked
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and later
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
was blocked as well.''Wall Street Journal'', Egypt Communications Cut Ahead Of Further Protests
On 27 January, various reports claimed that access to the Internet in the entire country had been shut down. The authorities responsible achieved this by shutting down the country's official
Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...
, in an attempt to stop mobilization for anti-government protests. Later reports stated that almost all BGP announcements out of the country had been withdrawn, almost completely disconnecting the country from the global Internet, with only a single major provider, Noor Data Networks, remained up. And though Noor continued to operate for several days, its routes started to be withdrawn at 20:46 UTC on 31 January. It was later reported that the five major Egyptian service providers—
Telecom Egypt Telecom Egypt (), is Egypt's primary telephone company. It started in 1854 with the first telegraph line in Egypt. In 1998, it replaced the former Arab Republic of Egypt National Telecommunication Organization (ARENTO). The company has a fixed- ...
, Vodafone Egypt/Raya, Link Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and Internet Egypt—all went dark one after the other between 22:12 and 22:25 UTC (12:12–12:25 am. Friday 28 January Cairo time). As a result, approximately 93% of all Egyptian networks were unreachable by late afternoon. The shutdown happened within the space of a few tens of minutes, not instantaneously, which was interpreted as companies receiving phone calls one at a time, ordering them to shut down access, rather than an automated system taking all providers down at once. Analysis by BGPMon showed that only 26 BGP routes of the 2903 registered routes to Egyptian networks remained active after the blackout was first noticed; thus, an estimated 88% of the whole Egyptian network was disconnected.
RIPE NCC RIPE NCC (''Réseaux IP Européens'' Network Coordination Centre) is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with a branch office in Dubai, U ...
has two graphs of routing activity from Egypt, announcements/withdrawals and available prefixes, including a snapshot of activity during the shutdown. Shortly after the Internet shutdown, engineers at
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, and SayNow, a voice-messaging startup company acquired by Google in January, announced the Speak To Tweet service. Google stated in its official blog that the goal of the service was to assist Egyptian protesters in staying connected during the Internet shutdown. Users could phone in a tweet by leaving a voicemail and use the Twitter hashtag ''#Egypt''. These tweets can be accessed without an Internet connection by dialing the same designated phone numbers. Those with Internet access can listen to the tweets by visiting ''twitter.com/speak2tweet''. In 2011, the Egyptian government demanded that Egyptian ISPs shut down their networks in the act of the "State against the Internet." As a result, French Data Network (FDN) provided free (zero-cost)
dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...
access to Egyptians with a landline (analogue) international telephone access. FDN provided the service as a matter of principle to "contribute to the freedom of expression of the Egyptian people and allow them to keep a connection with the rest of the world." Following the shutdown of the Internet in Egypt,
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
, then
President of the United States of America The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
, published a statement calling for an end to the Internet ban: On 2 February, connectivity was reestablished by the four main Egyptian service providers. A week later, the heavy filtering that occurred at the height of the revolution had ended and bloggers and online activists who had been arrested were released.


Increased censorship and surveillance in the post-Morsi era

The Egyptian government intensified efforts in the years after the overthrow of Morsi to bolster its ability to intercept and monitor messages and data sent over the Internet, affecting with the digital security tools that facilitate secure communication channels. In many cases, these disturbances have completely or partially disabled the encryption services widely used by commercial and civil services and individuals to secure their data flow. Awareness of the interference did not gain traction among the broader public until December 2016, when users suddenly discovered that
Signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...
, the messaging and voice calling application supported by Open Whisper Systems' encryption protocol, had stopped working in Egypt. Digital security experts contend that they had faced similar problems months before, which led some
information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...
companies to halt the collection of monthly fees pending a resolution. Indications that the Egyptian government has made attempts to acquire technology that would allow it greater surveillance of communication networks have surfaced several times. The most notable revelation came from a July 2015 data breach when an unknown individual hacked the computer system of a Milan-based information technology company
HackingTeam Hacking Team was a Milan-based information technology company that sold offensive intrusion and surveillance capabilities to governments, law enforcement agencies and corporations. Its "''Remote Control Systems''" enable governments and corporati ...
. Around 400 gigabytes of data – including emails, contracts, bills, and budgets involving the company and Egyptian security and intelligence authorities – were accessible to the public. In concert with other evidence, the leaked documents show that Egyptian authorities were attempting to acquire technology that would allow them to collect information on specific users of interest through directed surveillance. The first problem that companies and specialists faced that indicated Egyptian security agencies may be targeting the entire network's infrastructure arose in August 2016. Technicians noted that access to
Secure Shell The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH Protocol) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH was designed for ...
(SSH) – a protocol to provide secure communication channels across unsecured public networks and provided by different online services providers – had been obstructed. SSH protocol provided by US company
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational technology company and cloud service provider. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York, US, with 15 globally distributed data centers. DigitalOcean provides developers, ...
is used daily to manage millions of communication processes over the Internet. In response to the obstruction, DigitalOcean's users and clients began to contact the company. In response to a client's inquiry, which was obtained by ''
Mada Masr ''Mada Masr'' () is an independent Egyptian online newspaper, founded in June 2013 by former journalists of the English-language newspaper '' Egypt Independent'' following the shutting down of its editorial operations in April 2013. It is an inde ...
'', DigitalOcean wrote that the interrupted service was not the result of a technical error but had been deliberately caused: Data is often transferred over the Internet in small network packets that are "repackaged" and made legible on the recipient's side. Deep packet inspection intercepts the data and examines the identity of communicators and the content of this communication at an inspection point between the sender and recipient. The U.S. company added that they contacted both Egyptian service provider TEData and the Egyptian government to inquire about the interruption. Days after the interruption in the SSH protocol was detected, access to
HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protoc ...
was temporarily blocked. HTTPS is a protocol to securely transfer hypertexts, which constitute the core units of all web pages. The protocol continued to operate without interruption for internet giants like
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
but was completely blocked for all other websites. The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) – an international network operating under the Tor Project that monitors internet censorship, traffic manipulation, and signs of surveillance – decided to launch a thorough investigation in August into what was happening in Egypt at the request of technical experts in the country. In October 2016, OONI published a report that confirmed much of what the independent tests had pointed to, as well as DigitalOcean's assessment. The report indicates that the Tor anonymity network appeared to be interfered with in Egypt, though HTTPS connections to DigitalOcean's Frankfurt data center were throttled. The OONI report also asserted that the access to pornography websites appeared to be interfered with via in-band TCP packet injections of advertisement and malware content and that the temporary blocking of ''The New Arab''s website led to the blocking of specific content (such as images) of other sites that are hosted on the same content distribution network as ''The New Arab''. Freedom House has reported that other
VPN Virtual private network (VPN) is a network architecture for virtually extending a private network (i.e. any computer network which is not the public Internet) across one or multiple other networks which are either untrusted (as they are not c ...
and proxy services intended to circumvent censorship, including TunnelBear, CyberGhost, Hotspot Shield, TigerVPN, and ZenVPN have been blocked as well. In June 2017, Egypt banned at least 62 websites in a crackdown, including
Daily Sabah The ''Daily Sabah'' () is a Turkish pro-government daily newspaper published in Turkey. Available in English and owned by Turkuvaz Media Group, ''Daily Sabah'' published its first issue on 24 February 2014. Since 2018, the editor-in-chief is ...
,
Medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...
,
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...
,
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
, and
Mada Masr ''Mada Masr'' () is an independent Egyptian online newspaper, founded in June 2013 by former journalists of the English-language newspaper '' Egypt Independent'' following the shutting down of its editorial operations in April 2013. It is an inde ...
along with opposition websites, like ''El-Badil'', for containing material that "support terrorism and extremism as well as publish lies." The Association condemned the crackdown on Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), Mada Masr, and by the
Index on Censorship Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression. It produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association wit ...
. The ATFE stated that "the blocking of websites violates the Egyptian constitution". By October, that figure had climbed to 434 banned websites, including the sites of many opposition organizations and activists. Similarly, social media pages have been shut down or had content removed or their administrators arrested by the Egyptian government. Although Facebook, Google, and Twitter have not reported receiving formal takedown requests from the Egyptian government, its supporters have reported dozens of satirical anti-government Facebook pages for violating the site's community standards. President Sisi's statement that "with the assistance of two web brigades, I can shut down the pages, take them over and make them my own." led many Egyptian commentators to believe that the takedowns had official support. In December 2016, the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior claimed to have shut down 163 Facebook pages and arrested 14 administrators.
Voice-over-IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...
(VoIP) services—including
WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...
,
Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...
, Viber,
FaceTime FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-facin ...
, and
Facebook Messenger Messenger, formerly known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the client application of Messenger is currently available o ...
—have been intermittently blocked on mobile networks by the NTRA since 2013, though disruptions to VoIP have been reported as early as 2010. The NTRA initially claimed that it was blocking VoIP services for economic reasons, but it became more explicit about the political and security purpose of its blocking in 2015. The government has shut down Internet and phone networks in the Sinai on multiple occasions since 2014, ostensibly as part of its conflict against the ongoing Islamist
Sinai insurgency The Sinai insurgency was an insurgency campaign in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt launched by Islamist militants against Egyptian security forces, which also included attacks on civilians. The insurgency began during the Egyptian Crisis, duri ...
. These localized shutdowns are timed to coincide with military operations. However, their counterinsurgency effectiveness is limited because of insurgents' widespread usage of workarounds such as
walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, HT, or handheld radio, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer A ...
s and portable
Broadband Global Area Network The Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) is a global satellite network with telephony owned by Inmarsat using portable terminals. The terminals are normally used to connect a laptop computer to broadband Internet in remote locations, although as ...
terminals. However, the shutdowns block
emergency call An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and ...
s, preventing civilians from obtaining treatment for combat wounds and, in several cases, preventing women who went into labor from reaching the hospital.


Persecutions of Egyptians for online activities

A number of Egyptians have been arrested, detained, or imprisoned for their posts on social media. Reasons for these detentions and prosecutions include spreading fake news, inciting violence, insulting the president, and "contempt of religion," and sentences have been as severe as five years in prison. Though arrests initially only targeted known activists and members of opposition groups, particularly the
Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
, in 2017, the Egyptian government began going after unaffiliated Egyptians who criticized it. Anti-government bloggers are often intimidated or harassed by pro-government individuals and news sites. 6 April Movement founder and activist Esraa Abdel Fattah had personal photos, emails, and recordings of phone calls posted on social media without her consent in 2017, for example. As of 2018, independent media editors can be arrested for maintaining a news site without a license. LGBT Egyptians became the target of a particularly fierce crackdown in 2017 after several Egyptians were arrested for sharing images of a rainbow flag flying at a Mashrou' Leila concert in Cairo. Although homosexuality is legal in Egypt, LGBT Egyptians are charged with "debauchery and immorality." Fifty-seven LGBT Egyptians were arrested by October 2017, with ten sentenced to one and six years in prison. This crackdown follows similar efforts by Egyptian police to use
Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application for gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009, and has since become the large ...
, a dating app for gay men, to entrap gay Egyptians. This practice began in 2014 but is still occurring as of 2017. Human rights organizations have called on the authorities in Egypt to end the trial of the content creators of
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
who have been prosecuted for exercising their freedom of expression through their online content. Reportedly, 11 defendants were referred to trial in 2020 for sharing content on platforms such as Likee and TikTok. As per IFEX, the Cairo Criminal Court held a session on 31 May 2021 for the hearing of the case of human trafficking involving TikTok influencers.


2019 Egyptian protests

In the week after the extremely small 20—21 September 2019 protests, Egyptian authorities blocked, restricted, or temporarily disrupted online communication services, such as
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
,
WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...
,
Signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...
.


Social media usage

A major use of social media in Egypt in recent years has been for political activism and revolutions, and the two most-used websites in Egypt in 2010 were
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
and
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
. Social media sites like Facebook allowed liberal, minority, and religious groups to make communication networks and mobilize protests, as can be seen with the
Egyptian Revolution of 2011 The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...
. Although the Egyptian government began restricting Internet use, protesters still used social media to stay connected. Recently, Egyptian police have been using social media, such as
Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application for gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009, and has since become the large ...
, to find and arrest homosexual men.


Internet Revolution Egypt

Internet Revolution Egypt was an online protest against the Internet services provided in Egypt for which
Telecom Egypt Telecom Egypt (), is Egypt's primary telephone company. It started in 1854 with the first telegraph line in Egypt. In 1998, it replaced the former Arab Republic of Egypt National Telecommunication Organization (ARENTO). The company has a fixed- ...
has a monopoly, which occurred in early 2014. The protest mainly took place on
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
through a page created by young Egyptians; some activity was also seen on
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
as well. Users within the group were mainly within the 18 to 24 age group. The main Facebook page, has reached more than one million followers and continues to expand. This significant expansion resulted in widespread media attention at the time. In response to some accusations by certain media outlets, the protest stated that it does not relate to politics. The slogan used by the protests is " خدمة سىئه للغايةالأنترنت عندنا في مصر; غالي جدا بطئ ببشاعة .. خدمة عملاء زي الزفت", which means "The internet services in Egypt; are very expensive, terribly slow... The customer service is terrible." in English." 'Down with slow internet': A new Egyptian revolution?"
, Shounaz Meky, ''Al Arabiya News'', 18 February 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.


See also

*
Ramses Exchange The Ramses Exchange is a telecoms building in central Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglom ...
* Internet censorship in the Arab Spring


References

{{Egypt topics 2010s internet outages