CAIRO — An administrative court in Egypt today ordered that the prime minister take measures to censor porn sites inside the country.
The court's latest decision is immediately enforceable, but it still can be appealed, according to Ahram Online.
In the case, attorney Nezar Gharab argued that Egypt's lack of laws to criminalize porn sites so far has had "a negative impact." Gharab said that the availability of porn sites has caused "immorality" to spread, affecting youth and children.
He also said porn reduces the level of human dignity and contradicts Islamic Sharia law and all other religions.
The ruling by Egypt’s Administrative Court contradicts the same court’s decision two years ago in which it decided not to ban porn sites.
“This is the court's second verdict in the case, as it issues verdicts in urgent cases in two phases: an urgent verdict, followed by a substantive verdict,” Ahram Online said in its report. “The first urgent verdict was issued in 2009 in the same case, and also ordered the censorship of pornography websites. This first verdict should theoretically have been applied immediately, but the decision was never applied.”
Porn consumption in Egypt is incredibly high, according to a SimilarWeb research project published in March.
According to SimilarWeb’s analysis, the top two countries with the highest share of adult websites are Iraq and Egypt, two socially conservative countries that many wouldn’t have previously thought would factor in its global top 10 list.
