Egypt Bans Pornography Web sites

An Egyptian court has recently banned pornography Web sites, labeling them "venomous and vile," according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Egypt, which strictly bans offline pornography, already has a regulation which requires Internet cafe users to sign a form saying that they will not attempt to access or download pornography.

Egypt boasts the highest Internet penetration rate on the African continent (approximately 14%), as well as a relatively free Internet. Although certain sites, such as that of the controversial Muslim Brotherhood, have been filtered for periods of time, there is little to no filtering currently. According to two Egyptian bloggers I spoke with, users are relatively aware of circumvention technologies. One of the bloggers suggested that the filtering of pornography may have the intended consequence of promoting such technologies. The other believes that the Ministry of Communication will not follow through with the plan.

Interestingly, Egypt ranks third in the world (after Pakistan and India) for the search term "sex."