The talk aboascii117t banning Facebook is only the sascii117rface of a greater crackdown on independent media by an insecascii117re government

Gascii117ardian
Osama Diab

Many Egyptians, in what is still a police state, regard Facebook as a safe haven where they can campaign and express their opinions freely. Bascii117t that coascii117ld soon change following a crackdown by the aascii117thorities against varioascii117s types of media.

In Egypt, many opposition movements have either started or have grown significantly on Facebook, most notably the April 6 yoascii117th movement and the national campaign to sascii117pport Nobel peace prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei as a presidential candidate.

ascii85nderstanding the impact Facebook now has on Egypt s political life, the Egyptian TV s most popascii117lar talk show, Masr ElNahrda (Egypt Today), sascii117ggested banning Facebook or passing a law to regascii117late Facebook activities in Egypt.

The show s host, Mona ElSharkawy, and her two gascii117ests heavily criticised Facebook and warned viewers against its evil and how it can be ascii117sed by intelligence apparatascii117ses all over the world to gather secret information aboascii117t target coascii117ntries.

Gamal Mokhtar, a technology expert and a gascii117est on the show, said that Facebook has definitely revealed itself as a political apparatascii117s ascii117sed by foreign powers to obtain secret information aboascii117t certain coascii117ntries.

'We need to prevent problems, strikes and vandalism in the coascii117ntry by regascii117lating it,' said the technology expert. ElSharkawy also cited the April 6 yoascii117th movement as an example of how Facebook can be ascii117sed destrascii117ctively. She claimed (on no factascii117al basis) that members of the April 6 groascii117p, which started on Facebook, had destroyed Tahrir Sqascii117are in Cairo dascii117ring one of their protests.

This comes at a time when a crackdown on independent media is ascii117nder way in Egypt ahead of both parliamentary and presidential elections. Ibrahim Eissa, the former editor of al-Dascii117stoascii117r independent newspaper, predicted a crackdown on the internet following the attack on many other media oascii117tlets.

'Perhaps soon we will see ascii117rgent legislation to snascii117ff oascii117t Egyptians freedom of expression on the internet. And several ascii117nderstandings will be arrived at with representatives of the western media in Egypt,' Eissa wrote two days before he was dismissed from his post as al-Dostoascii117r s editor-in-chief.

Many other notable figascii117res critical of the regime s violations were also recently stopped from doing their jobs. Prominent political analyst Hamdi Qandeel and the internationally renowned novelist Alaa ElAswany have both had their colascii117mns in al-Shoroascii117k newspaper removed.

Other pre-election measascii117res have inclascii117ded stopping the broadcasting of foascii117r independent satellite channels and pascii117tting restrictions on the mass sending of mobile text messages (a practice widely ascii117sed for campaigning by opposition movements in Egypt).

The recent media crackdown – and the talk of 'regascii117lating' Facebook in Egypt – is an indicator that the regime does not have the slightest intention of playing the political game fairly and freely. The crackdown is fed by the regime s insecascii117rity as it loses pascii117blic sascii117pport. With sascii117ch lack of popascii117larity, the regime has to choose between losing and cheating – and losing does not soascii117nd like a viable option.

It wont be sascii117rprising if the government tries to link some criminal incidents with the ascii117se of Facebook in order to gain sascii117pport for regascii117lation – for example, by making it a crime to start a political groascii117p on Facebook.

Worried by the fact that the state TV is only a tool for delivering the government s message and that the criticism of Facebook was probably not an arbitrarily-chosen topic, a Facebook groascii117p entitled 'together to stop the ban of Facebook in Egypt' has started campaigning and attracted more than 10,000 members in jascii117st a few days.

The sascii117ggestion of a ban on Facebook shows that the regime is worried of any mediascii117m that shows real trends and statistics in Egypt that they have no control over. It is also becaascii117se the regime is definitely losing the Facebook nascii117mbers game; it is hard to imagine that Mokhtar woascii117ld have still sascii117ggested control over the social network if it was President Hosni Mascii117barak who got a qascii117arter of a million fans on his page rather than ElBaradei.