The Muslim Brotherhood's draft internet and hacking law is copied from Saudi Arabia's law, they were even too lazy to replace "Republic" with "Kingdom" in Article 12!
In general, the MB's draft law, and as expected, deliberately mixes and in a vague manner (a) computer fraud and abuse, (b) privacy protection, (c) electronic communication privacy (d) consumer data collection by companies and (e) freedom of expression on the internet. I would argue if the current version of the law is approved and later challenged in Egypt's Supreme Court, it would be deemed "void for vagueness".
Article 6 (see Arabic below) of the draft MB law (copy-paste of the Saudi law) is the most dangerous as it aims at stifling public debate. For example, under Article 6 most anti-Mubarak postings on Facebook before the Egyptian revolution, anti-SCAF after the revolution or many of the movies would be illegal and its producer could be imprisoned for five years and pay a L.E. 5 million fine.
يعاقب بالسجن مدة لا تقل على خمس سنوات وبغرامة لا تزيد على ثلاثة ملايين جنيه أو بإحدي هاتين العقوبتين، كل شخص يرتكب أيا من الجرائم المعلوماتية الآتية:-1- إنتاج ما من شأنه المساس بالنظام العام أو القيم الدينية أو الآداب العامة أو حرمة الحياة الخاصة أو إعداده أو إرساله أو تخزينه عن طريق الشبكة المعلوماتية أو أحد اجهزة الحاسب الآلي.
Also, I find it interesting they refer to "religious values" and not "Islamic values", could it be because the law is a copy of the Saudi law and as we know Saudi thinks there is no religion but Islam?
The debate over internet freedom and potential government and companies abuses rages in the U.S. as well due to the potential ramifications on American Citizens "legislation should address core critical infrastructure vulnerabilities without sacrificing the fundamental values of privacy and civil liberties for our citizens." according to the U.S. government and a foreign policy issue with the recent announcement by the White House of new sanctions against Iran and Syria for using technology to target their own citizens. President Obama said that Internet and mobile technologies "should be in place to empower citizens, not suppress them."
On the global level, UNESCO published last year an excellent report "Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Connection" (Read here the English version). I suggest that political activists and political parties read the report as it "provides a new perspective on the social and political dynamics behind the threats to expression. It develops a conceptual framework on the ‘ecology of freedom of expression’ for discussing the broad context of policy and practice that should be taken into consideration in discussions of this issue."
On the global level, UNESCO published last year an excellent report "Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Connection" (Read here the English version). I suggest that political activists and political parties read the report as it "provides a new perspective on the social and political dynamics behind the threats to expression. It develops a conceptual framework on the ‘ecology of freedom of expression’ for discussing the broad context of policy and practice that should be taken into consideration in discussions of this issue."
Image: Photo tweeted from Cairo’s Tahrir Square by @richardengelnbc
