Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratifies law to supervise people with more than 5000 followers on social media

Barely months after two Sub-Saharan African countries formulated and passed some ‘unpopular’ laws aimed at restricting the use of Social media, another African country has now joined the bandwagon.

Following the footsteps of Uganda and Tanzania which recently implemented a law charging people for using social media dubbed social media tax while Tanzania already charges bloggers for licences to operate their online businesses, Egypt has now joined the two and now has some sort of law that governs social media use.

According to ChannelsTV, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ratified a law granting authorities the right to monitor social media users.

Egypt’s parliament back in July had approved the law regulating social media and now President Sisi has ratified it, according to media reports.

Thanks to this new law, the Supreme Council for Media Regulations will now have power to supervise people with more than 5000 followers on social media or personal blog.

The new law follows another piece of legislation that was signed off in August that allows authorities to block websites that ‘constitute a threat’ to Egypt’s national security through a judge. Convicted perpetrators face jail time and fines.

Rights group have however, opposed the law arguing that the laws are one of the measures that are aimed at curbing freedom of expression online. It remains to be seen if they will be successful in fighting the law.