The Interior Ministry had made previous statements it was monitoring the Internet, but assured the public it had no need to fear the monitoring. “Who says we are monitoring your private life? We are monitoring political issues, we need to watch electronic crimes,” said Gen. Hany Abd el Lateef, spokesman for the ministry.
In previous statements, the Interior Ministry has already made clear they plan to track down Islamists, homosexuals and any others who do not reflect the Egyptian mainstream societal views. The ministry has released a more detailed list of offenses they plan to monitor on social media websites:
Blasphemy and skepticism in religions; regional, religious, racial, and class divisions; spreading of rumors and intentional twisting of facts; throwing accusations; libel; sarcasm; using inappropriate words; calling for the departure of societal pillars; encouraging extremism, violence and dissent; inviting demonstrations, sit-ins and illegal strikes; pornography, looseness, and lack of morality; educating methods of making explosives and assault, chaos and riot tactics; calling for normalizing relations with enemies and circumventing the state’s strategy in this regard; fishing for honest mistakes, hunting flesh; taking statements out of context; and spreading hoaxes and claims of miracles.
