The internet in Egypt

The use of the internet has been spreading very rapidly as more and more people gain access to it. Egypt is a perfect example of this, just five years ago only a very small number of people in the country had access. This has now changed and most people can get online, although only about a quarter of the population do it regularly.

The use of the internet in Egypt is about middle of the road for an Arab country. About a quarter of the population currently have access to the internet. However given that Egypt is by far the most populous Arab country this does mean there are a lot of users. One of the reasons for this is that internet access is cheap. The government gave up its monopoly several years ago and there are now hundreds of internet service providers in Egypt. While this has certainly driven the price down having a lot of small companies competing has not really helped with the quality. As a result the quality of the internet service in Egypt is variable.

The government has also helped to encourage internet usage by creating a program that is intended to ensure that all families in the country have a computer. Obviously people can't get online without one but for many families it is something that they can't afford. The program has been very successful and is a big part of the reason for the rapid growth in internet usage over the last few years.

One of the issues with internet usage in Egypt is that of censorship. Like most Arab countries the internet is censored in Egypt although it is done in rather a different way. There is little censorship of sites that would be considered contrary to Muslim values like you would find in other Arab countries, Egypt is pretty relaxed about that. The government also does not use a high tech approach to block access to websites. Instead they simply monitor sites and arrest people who publish things that are critical of the government. Clearly the primary concern is more about making sure that information about what happens in Egypt doesn't get out.

The main reason that the government censored the internet was that they viewed it as a threat. This turned out to be true as the recent revolution did start online. With the overthrow of the government it was hoped that censorship in Egypt would be reduced but this does not appear to be the case. The military have arrested several bloggers for posting things that were critical of the way the military reacted during the revolution. This is really just evidence of something that most people new anyway the power in Egypt is with the military and not the government. As long as that remains the case it is unlikely that censorship is going to disappear.