Egypt court bans YouTube over Innocence of Muslims trailer

Patrick Kingsley in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 10 February 2013 16.50 GMT

YouTube has been temporarily banned in Egypt for carrrying an anti-Islamic documentary that triggered deadly riots across north Africa and the Middle East in September.

In what human rights activists have called a backwards step for internet freedom, Judge Hassouna Tawfiq ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website for 30 days after the trailer for Innocence of Muslims sparked outrage.

The ban had not been enacted by Sunday afternoon, and a Google spokesperson said the company, which owns YouTube, had not yet been served with any order. But five years after a request for a similar ban was thrown out by an Egyptian court, this week's putative YouTube ban has been seen as a regressive step.

In 2007 an Egyptian judge tried to block 49 human rights websites, but his efforts were vetoed by an administrative court. "It is certainly a backwards step compared to what the court ruled (in 2007)," said Amr Gharbeia, civil liberties director at the Egyptian Institute for Personal Rights.

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