Police in Egypt want to create a computer system that monitors social media

Egypt’s police force is seeking to build a surveillance system to monitor social media for expressions of dissent – including profanity, immorality, insults and calls for strikes and protests. According to a leaked document in which technology companies are invited to offer their services, Egypt’s interior ministry says it wants the ability to scan Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Viber in real-time for usage that might “harm public security or incite terrorism”. The ministry asks the unnamed companies for a system that could dredge up “vocabulary which is contrary to law and public morality”. According to the document, this would include “degrading and acerbic ridicule; slander; insult; the use of profanity”, incitement of “extremism, violence and rebellion … demonstrations, sit-ins and illegal strikes”; and “pornography and decadence; immorality and debauchery, and the publication of ways to manufacture explosives”.