Egypt to ban YouTube

 

From The Telegraph

A Cairo court has ruled to ban the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying the anti-Islam film that caused riots across the world.

The judge ordered the Egyptian government to block access to the site as punishment for allowing users to see the film clip he described as "offensive to Islam and to the Prophet Mohammed".

The "Innocence of Muslims", made by an Egyptian American Christian, is a blasphemous portrayal of Islam, showing the Prophet Mohammed as a religious fraud and paedophile.

The film's 14-minute trailer, which was posted to YouTube, incensed communities around the world. Demonstrators in Cairo last September scaled the US embassy's walls and tore down the American flag. The violence spread through over 20 countries, killing more than 50 people.

The lawyer alleged that the film constitutes a threat to Egypt's security.

Last year YouTube's parent company, Google, declined requests to remove the video from the website. It did restrict access to some countries, including Egypt and Libya, because it said the film broke laws in those countries.

A spokeswoman for Google said that the firm had "received nothing from the judge or government related to this matter."

The ruling may yet be appealed. Similar orders have in the past failed to be enforced because of the prohibitive costs and technical complexity of doing so.

Egypt's new constitution includes a ban on insulting "religious messengers and prophets." Rights groups, seculars and liberals have complained that Islamist lawyers, emboldened by the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, may use the strictures to restrict certain rights and freedoms.


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