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Egypt has not been identified as an “enemy ofthe internet” by Reporters Without Borders in their2014 report, despite the known internet surveillanceof perceived critics and enemies of incumbentpower holders.Under Mubarak there was an unspoken rule of“let the people vent” as long as there was no outspokencriticism or “foul language” used againstthe president, his family, or any leading politicalfigure. Citizens, and more specifically journalistsand opposition figures, were allowed to voice criticismon socioeconomic and political issues. It wasperceived as a political tool to disperse pent-upfeelings against an authoritarian regime, and therebyprevent a more damaging building up of politicaldissatisfaction. Surveillance and control were targetedat specific individuals. As the events of the25 January Revolution showed, this tactic did nothelp to dispel deep-set opposition to the Mubarakregime.Yet overall access to websites was kept open,aside from repeated legal attempts to clamp downon pornographic sites. Islamists have been tryingsince 2009 to ban porn sites through legal rulings,the latest of which was on 30 March 2012. 7 Theseefforts, however, were opposed, mostly by theMinistry of Communications and Information Technology(MCIT), as unenforceable for technical andfinancial reasons. 8It should be pointed out that the average Egyptiansurfing the internet has more freedom thanher or his user counterpart in the United States,for example. There is scant commercial and businesssurveillance, and online information is notwidely used commercially. There have also been nonoted stories of employers using online informationagainst their employees or prospective job seekers.The emergency law and internet surveillanceEgypt is in a period of political and socioeconomictransition after the popular revolution in early 2011.The initial aspiration for a more democratic systemhad failed due to a vacuum of order and security.The lawlessness that Egypt was subjected to afterMubarak’s stepping down from power led to7 OpenNet Initiative. (2012, March 29). Egypt’s government plansto block all online pornography. OpenNet Initiative. https://opennet.net/blog/2012/03/egypts-government-plans-banpornography-online;Associated Press (2012, November 7). Egyptprosecutor orders ban on online pornography. USA Today. www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/07/egypt-ban-onlinepornography/16898478 El-Dabh, B. (2012, November 11). Ministry of Communicationsdetails difficulties in porn ban. Daily News Egypt. www.dailynewsegypt.com/2012/11/11/ministry-of-communicationsdetails-difficulties-in-porn-banwidespread public acceptance of a military holdover the country. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisihas been elected with the hope that he leads witha strong hand. Yet his political power is still in theprocess of consolidation, with the prospect of aclampdown on some of his most vocal and dangerousopponents continuing.Internet surveillance in Egypt is closely tiedto the “emergency law”, Law No. 162 of 1958. 9 Accordingto Sadiq Reza, Egypt’s rulers have usedemergency rule “to assert and maintain control overthe Egyptian populace at large.” This allowed themto establish a government based on emergency ruleusing exceptional measures of surveillance andcontrol. The legal institution of emergency powersand their enforcement have been “a vehicle for thecreation of the modern Egyptian state and a tool forthe consolidation and maintenance of political powerby the government,” allowing the suppression ofopposition. 10The emergency law’s main stipulations are statedin its third article. The law gives the governmenta wide margin of control that is loosely defined asfollows:• To restrict people’s freedom of assembly, movement,residence, or passage in specific timesand places; arrest suspects or [persons who are]dangerous to public security and order [and] detainthem; allow searches of persons and placeswithout being restricted by the provisions of theCriminal Procedure Code; and assign anyone toperform any of these tasks.• To order the surveillance of letters of any type;supervise censorship; seize journals, newsletters,publications, editorials, cartoons, and anyform of expression and advertisement beforethey are published, and close their publishingplaces.• To determine the times of opening and closingof public shops, and order the closure of someor all of these shops.• To confiscate any property or building, order thesequestration of companies and corporations,and postpone the due dates of loans for whathas been confiscated or sequestrated.• To withdraw licences of arms, ammunition, explosivedevices, and explosives of all kinds,order their confiscation by the government, andclose arms stores, and9 www.scribd.com/doc/3122113310 Reza, S. (2007). Endless Emergency: The case of Egypt. , 10(4),532-553. www.bu.edu/law/faculty/scholarship/workingpapers/documents/RezaS031208rev.pdf• To evict people from areas or isolate these areas;regulate the means of transport throughthese areas; and limit the means of transportbetween different regions. 11How does the Egyptian emergency law compare withthe 13 International Principles on the Application ofHuman Rights to Communications Surveillance? 12The emergency law seems to be diametrically opposedto the latter.The emergency law has been used almostuninterruptedly since 1981 in Egypt. With the ascendanceof the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces(SCAF) from February 2011 to June 2012, the law continuedto be in operation. After President Mubarakwas deposed, the SCAF became the governing bodyon 13 February 2011 to oversee the transfer of powerto a civilian government elected by the people.The SCAF was created in 1968 by President AbdelNasser to coordinate military strategies and operationsduring wars; it was not foreseen that it wouldbecome a national governing body. However, duringits six-month rule it managed to solidify its new politicalrole through constitutional amendments.During the SCAF’s rule there were several declarationsthat the emergency law would come to anend, 13 but this never happened. 14 The SCAF found itmore convenient to have the emergency law at handto engineer its political hold over the country.With the election of President Mohamed Morsias the Muslim Brotherhood government representativefrom 30 June 2012 to 3 July 2013, the emergencylaw was also found useful to control unrest andopposition. Notably, in two cases: once to subdueviolence in public places in the port cities of Ismailia,Suez and Port Said; 15 and the second time as anexcuse to fight “thuggery” – but it was also used tosilence the media. 16The emergency law came into full power anduse with Morsi’s removal by the army under GeneralAbdel Fattah al-Sisi on 3 July 2013. The interim governmentthat ruled for 11 months used widespread11 Emergency Law, Law No. 162 of 1958.12 https://necessaryandproportionate.org/text13 Ahram Online. (2012, May 31). Egypt state of emergency endsfor the first time in 30 years. Ahram Online. english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/43368/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-state-ofemergency-ends-for-first-time-in--y.aspx14 Shenker, J. (2011, September 16). Egyptians rally in TahrirSquare against return of emergency laws. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/16/egyptians-rally-tahrirsquare-laws15 BBC. (2013, January 28). Egypt unrest: Morsi declares emergencyin three cities. BBC. www.bbc.com/news/world-2122464316 Ahram Online. (2012, August 28). President Morsi consideringnew emergency laws: Justice Minister. Ahram Online. english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/1/51440/Egypt/President-Morsiconsidering-new-emergency-laws-Jus.aspxsurveillance, control and detention againstmembers of the Muslim Brotherhood and youthprotestors in the 25 January Revolution. Accordingto WikiThawra, security forces arrested more than41,000 Egyptians for political transgressions 17 afterMorsi’s removal. 18 The arrests were mainly of MuslimBrotherhood supporters, liberal youth and othersecular political opponents.El-Sisi had just been declared president when itwas leaked that the Ministry of Interior had advertisedan international tender for the surveillance ofsocial networking sites frequented by Egyptians. 19Nearly simultaneously, Bassem Youssef, the leadingEgyptian comic, who rose to fame with his politicalsatire on YouTube after the 2011 revolution, endedhis TV show citing unbearable pressure on himselfand his family. 20ConclusionEgypt is going through unprecedented times: the recentpast is not pointing to a more open, transparentpolitical system. There is popular backing, after threeyears of debilitating unrest and chaos, for a strongarmedgovernment – even at the expense of personalfreedoms. In addition, the government is also waggingthe fundamentalist threat card and justifyingthe emergency laws and online surveillance andcontrol as a means to protect its people. In the foreseeablefuture, online surveillance and control willbe stepped up by the El-Sisi government. The trackingof and crackdown on dissidents will intensify.From a non-governmental perspective, at leastfor now, Egyptians are not seriously in danger of beingmined online for commercial and business dataand information. As to the availability of websites ingeneral, it remains to be seen if they will continueto enjoy the relatively open internet access they historicallyhad in terms of access.However, politically speaking, Egypt seems tobe looking at a lengthy period of instability withcontinuous repression of “divergent elements”. Thismeans ongoing online surveillance, among othermore traditional surveillance methods. Legally,surveillance has been justified by the government17 From 3 July 2013 to 15 May 2014.18 WikiThawra: Statistical Data Base of the Egyptian Revolution.wikithawra.wordpress.com/author/wikithawra19 Gamal el-Deen, K. (2014, June 3). Egypt to impose surveillanceon social networking sites. PressTV. www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/06/03/365344/egypt-to-impose-surveillance-onsocial-networking-sites20 Hendawi, H. (2014, June 2). Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef endshis TV show. The Boston Globe. www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/06/02/egyptian-satirist-bassem-youssef-ends-hisshow/7tKEX0yMhjKFVsYcSy0jgL/story.html122 / Global Information Society Watch egypt / 123