{"id":72963,"date":"2018-07-16T17:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=72963"},"modified":"2018-07-16T17:36:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T21:36:10","slug":"wsj-egyptian-legislation-treats-social-media-accounts-with-more-than-5000-followers-as-media-outlets-opening-twitter-and-facebook-users-to-prosecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=72963","title":{"rendered":"(WSJ) Egyptian Legislation treats social-media accounts with more than 5,000 followers as media outlets, opening Twitter and Facebook users to prosecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Egypt\u2019s parliament passed a law giving the government sweeping powers to regulate traditional and social media, a move critics say will boost the Sisi regime\u2019s ability\u00a0<a class=\"icon none\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/in-sisis-second-term-opening-or-more-repression-1524744001?mod=article_inline\">to crack down<\/a>\u00a0on free speech and dissent.<\/p>\n<p>The measure allows authorities to penalize traditional media like television and newspapers for spreading what the government terms fake news. It also treats social-media accounts with more than 5,000 followers as media outlets, opening Twitter and Facebook users to prosecution on vague charges including defaming religion and inciting hatred.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n<p>Most prominent media outlets in Egypt are pro-government, and some analysts and rights groups see the law as an aggressive attempt to restrict social media, which remains one of the few remaining arenas of free expression in a country where independent news websites are often blocked and unauthorized street protests banned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese laws would legalize this mass censorship and step up the assault on the right to freedom of expression in Egypt,\u201d said Najia Bounaim, North Africa campaigns director at Amnesty International, commenting on the law and related legislation ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/egypt-passes-law-to-regulate-media-as-president-sisi-consolidates-power-1531769232\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egypt\u2019s parliament passed a law giving the government sweeping powers to regulate traditional and social media, a move critics say will boost the Sisi regime\u2019s ability\u00a0to crack down\u00a0on free speech and dissent. The measure allows authorities to penalize traditional media<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=72963\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433,94,560,168,114,89,203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-networking","category-blogging-the-internet","category-egypt","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-law-legal-issues","category-media","category-middle-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72965,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72963\/revisions\/72965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}