CAIRO, Egypt—The call earlier this year by Islamist members of the newly elected Egyptian parliament to impose a countrywide ban on all porn sites was topic number one at an IT conference held last week in Cairo, reported Ahram Online. While some attendees "expressed moral approval of a porn crackdown, others worried about freedom of expression, logistics, and the possible effect on Egypt's burgeoning IT sector." Still others expressed reservations about courting a level of online censorship that could wind up including political as well as sexual speech.
"Communications expert Nagi Anis warned that blocking sites would cause 'significant slow[ing of] internet service' which could hamper Egypt's future attempts to develop electronic commerce and attract investment," the website reported, adding that Anis also "pointed out the irony of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mohamed Salem, promising a potential quadrupling of internet speeds while others are suggesting a censorious move that would essentially slash transfer rates."
Regarding the potential for a slippery slope of censorship. Anis pointed out that the ban on porn sites in China, Iran and Saudi Arabia has also resulted in the blocking of many political sites, something he feared could also happen in Egypt.
"Such fears were echoed by Shaarawi Shaarawi, political activist and treasurer of the Egyptian Internet Association, who said blocking adults sites could be a prelude to a crackdown on online political voices and lead to the type of repression witnessed under the Mubarak regime," Ahram Online reported.
Others did not share those concerns. Mohamed Amara, a professor of jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, and a member of parliament who supports a porn ban on religious grounds, said many people have become addicted to online porn, which he claimed can be "more harmful than substance abuse."
Conceding that no ban would be 100 percent effective, he added, "I think that if one wants to do something against Islam then they can do it, [but] our role is to help preserve the Arab and Islamic identity."
Experts during the conference also estimated that the cost to the state to block the porn sites will run somewhere between $11.6m and $16.5m.
