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Egypt starts monitoring online communications

September 18, 2014
Social media was seen as an important tool of dissent during the 2011 revolution in Egypt, during the (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Egyptian authorities have commenced ‘unprecedented’ monitoring of Egyptians using Facebook, Skype, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber and more, reported BuzzFeed News. According to BuzzFeed News, Egypt has contracted See Egypt to allow authorities access to private online communications. Despite initially reporting that See Egypt is the sister company of US-based Blue Coat, Blue Coat has denied these claims in a statement. “Blue Coat has not responded, and does not intend to respond, to any tender for a social network monitoring operation in Egypt. See Egypt is a Blue Coat reseller, but is not otherwise affiliated with Blue Coat.  See Egypt has assured us that they have not bid or resold Blue Coat products to the Egyptian government for any social network monitoring operation.  Blue Coat supports internationally recognized rights to privacy and freedom of expression. We do not condone any government’s use of our products to abuse the Internet privacy or freedom of expression of its citizens. We conduct due diligence in our sales process to minimize the risk of our technology falling into the wrong hands or being misused in violation of our corporate policies, including our Public Internet Access Policy.” Blue…


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