Egypt to Ban Internet Porn

Egypt’s public prosecutor this week ordered internet service providers to block pornographic websites.

The move is popular with resurgent religious conservatives, but is being condemned by liberals who fear increasing censorship.

We speak with reporter Noel King in Cairo.

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Aaron Schachter: It’s also a time of transition in Egypt. The country has changed a lot already in the wake of the Arab Spring revolution there, but more change is on the way. A new constitution has yet to be written, and that sparked a furious debate over issues like Islamic law and freedom of speech. One salvo in that debate was fired this week by Egypt’s top prosecutor. He ordered government ministries to block access to pornographic websites. Reporter Noel King is in Cairo. She says the reaction to the porn ban highlights a deep divide within Egyptian society.

Noel King: There is a large segment of the Egyptian population which is religiously conservative, which thinks that pornography is corrosive to youth, goes against the values and norms of society, and they want to see it banned. On the other hand, the liberals who were empowered during the Egyptian revolution, have taken to social media today, to Twitter, and they said, “Look, this is absolutely ridiculous. You start with banning pornography, and before long, we’ve got a situation like the one we had under Hosni Mubarak.”

Schachter: It isn’t so terribly shocking that Arab, Islamic government in the middle east would attempt to block porn, but the difference here is that this is a democratically elected government that is supposed to uphold those principles, right?

King: This is the question. Is Egypt at heart a conservative country? Is it a Muslim nation that wants Muslim laws, that wants the sort of religiously conservative norms that you see in countries like Iran or Pakistan, or is Egypt at heart a country that respects freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Even if you don’t like pornography, and certainly many Egyptians do, does it respect freedom of expression enough to say, “We are not going to allow things to start being blocked.” Now remember, during the Egyptian elections, the men, and they were mostly men who were voted into office, were men who were conservative. They are on the side that says pornography is corrosive to Egyptian society, it’s contrary to the national ethic, and we don’t like it. They represent a good part of Egypt.

Schachter: Now, they are obviously, as you say, the majority in government, but as far as the public goes, is there any indication which side will win out?

King: I’m going to put this as delicately as I can. There are a lot of very young men in Egypt. And one of the knock on effects of the foundering economy over the past decade is that young men are not getting married at age 20, or age 21 anymore. They are getting married at 30, or 31. There is a whole decade where young Egyptian men don’t have a lot to do, which means a lot of Egyptian men are looking at pornography. So even if you exclude the moral argument, there is a very specific social argument that’s going to happen here. I will say this anecdotally. I heard from Egyptian women today on both sides of the spectrum, and what they said is, “We have to deal with enough, sexual harassment, when we walk in the street. If you take pornography away from Egyptian men, do you have any idea how bad it’s going to get for us?”

Schachter: One of the interesting aspects of this ban, is it happens to be an issue that both the current Islamic-led government and the former dictator Hosni Mubarak agreed.

King: Well, you know, the prosecutor general who called to implement the ban is, as you say, a remnant of the regime of Hosni Mubarak. He has a very chilly relationship with president Mohamed Morsi. The two men, a few weeks ago, actually clashed outright. Morsi attempted to remove the prosecutor general from his position. He said, “You haven’t done a very good job of going after the men who are accused of killing Egyptian protesters during the revolution. I’m taking you out of that top judiciary spot, and I’m sending you, believe it or not, as an ambassador to the Vatican.” The very next day, the prosecutor general came out and said, “I’m not going to leave this job unless I’m assassinated.” Now, if you are an ambitious remnant of the Mubarak regime, and you want to get along with the new guys in power, the Muslim Brotherhood, what is one of the things you can do? You can bang the drum on one of their flashpoint issues, like the banning of pornography. Some analysts believe that that’s what’s happening here. This is about political gamesmanship, as much as anything.

Schachter: Noel, as you say, hard to tell where things will go with this particular law banning pornography, but one thing we know for certain is that the software to block pornography is not cheap. Can Egypt actually afford to do this?

King: You know, that’s a great question, and in the end, that’s what this might come down to. What technology experts came up with is, the figure they came up with, is 16.5 million dollars in the first six months, and then millions of dollars each month after that. Again, we are talking about a country where about half of the population is on or below the poverty line. There is no extra money for something like this, and some of the fiercest critics have said, “Why are we not focusing on our economy, which is in disarray. Why are we talking about instituting a procedure that is going to cost us millions of dollars that we simply don’t have lying around. ”

Schachter: Reporter Noel King in Cairo. Thank you.

King: Thank you, Aaron.

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