The Administrative Court in Cairo turned down on Tuesday a lawsuit demanding social networking giant Facebook to be banned in Egypt for “spreading rumors” and “endangering national security”.
In his petition, brought against the prime minister and the minister of communication, lawyer Mahmoud Guweily said “Facebook corrupts morals, instigates debauchery and destabilizes the country’s national security by spreading rumors and uncontrollably impersonating state agencies”.
According to the petition, Facebook lacks sufficient data verification in terms of its subscriptions, adding that data provided by subscribers can be very haphazard and uncontrolled. Guweily said such a situation gives rumor makers the chance to create fake pages representing state authorities and people holding sensitive posts.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
