Rabat- Egypt’s administrative court ordered authorities on Saturday, May 26, to block YouTube for a month over a controversial short film made in the US in 2012, disrespecting the Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him.
Egyptian authorities have ended an appeal that began in 2013 over a low-budget 14-minute film uploaded on YouTube called “Innocence of Muslims.” The short film depicted the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) as a “buffoon and a paedophile” reported the Guardian and AFP.
In 2013, the court ordered the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to block YouTube temporarily, however the latter said that blocking YouTube would automatically hamper the Google search engine since the video-sharing website is owned by Google, which might result in large job losses in the country.
Until Saturday, May 26, YouTube has been accessible while the case has been under review. The Egyptian lawyer who filed the case at a lower administrative court, Mohamed Hamid Salem, said that the court ordered that all links to the film be blocked.
The Egyptian court’s ruling is final and cannot be appealed, however the lawyer said that YouTube was still accessible in Cairo on Saturday.
The film, released in July 2012 in California, was written and produced by Egyptian Coptic Christian filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.
The controversial film provoked demonstrations by Muslims in the US and the Arab World. In Pakistan, over 30 protesters were killed amid hostile clashes with authority forces.
Meanwhile, US officials claimed that they were not aware of the film until its release since it was privately made, adding that they could not prevent it due to freedom of speech rights.
