The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) claimed that a ban on pornography was completely unfeasible in a statement on its website. The prosecutor general ordered ministries on Wednesday to enforce a ban on pornography on the web. “Firstly, the [MCIT] confirms its full respect for the provisions and the judiciary and its commitment to its implementation,” said the statement. The MCIT laid out a number of insurmountable issues facing the government in banning adult content websites. “The issue of blocking pornography is a global issue and very complex, and the process of blocking it requires a full inventory of names of those sites which are estimated in the millions,” read the statement. The ministry mentioned that a committee responsible for exploring methods to block pornographic websites was put together by the past People's Assembly. The committee traveled to “an Arab country” whose government had taken measures to restrict websites. “However they found that these countries have not succeeded in fully blocking these sites as was hoped. Although some countries spent tens of millions of dollars to censor, they were unable to do so because of users' abilities to circumvent these restrictions and gain access to the sites,” said the MCIT. The statement claimed that the government had worked with internet service providers a few years ago to implement “Family Internet” options for customers, ensuring that Internet consumers have the option of blocking offensive content or pages they might want to keep away from children in their households. The MCIT affirmed its commitment to educating Egyptian society and taking part in “awareness programs,” warning of the danger of pornographic sites, saying it was willing to cooperate with government, media, civil society, and private sector institutions. It also said they and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) could provide advertising materials targeted at young people discouraging them from accessing such sites. The prosecutor general ordered the instatement of a ban on internet pornography last week, stemming from a 2009 court ruling that had not been implemented. Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered the ministries of the interior, telecommunications, and information to enforce the ban. Earlier this year Salafi MPs, including Al-Nour MP Younis Makhyoun, called for ministries to uphold the court's ruling and ban any websites compromising the country's moral and religious values. Activists critcised the move to attempt censoring websites, arguing that such a precedent could be used to restrict freedom of expression and lead to the blocking of websites expressing certain political and social perspectives. The MCIT said it had arrived at many of its findings supporting the unlikelihood of a pornography ban after the 2009 court ruling, when it first started researching possible ways to enforce the Administrative Court's decision. While some Arab countries have attempted to restrict their citizens' access to online pornographic material, Egypt has not yet taken concrete steps to do the same.
