Egypt, Internet, and the questions that come

November 22nd, 2009 in 1

CAIRO: The Internet is supposed to be the one forum left that is without government censorship. Tell that to China, which regularly censors content that its citizens can access. Search for information related to the Tiananmen Square incident and errors routinely appear on the screen. For Yang Chio, a Chinese web analyst who attended the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt this week, China is lagging behind, but he says neutrality online is not as much a given as people think.

“Look at what has happened here. Chinese banners were covered and people talked a lot about how to make the Internet more inclusive, but in the end, no matter what happens, there will never be the complete mobility the Internet offers until companies start ensuring the freedom of their content to get to the user. In China this doesn’t happen and even here in Egypt, where I have lived previously, you simply cannot access all the websites you want,” the Chinese analyst told Bikya Masr.

Of course, those posters the UN asked to be removed were not from the Chinese government, instead they were advertising a “Free Tibet” film. China complained, Chio says, and since the Asian giant is the most promising arena for Internet companies and business, the banners were removed, which left a sour taste in many observers.

“It is ridiculous that we come for a conference on the freedom of the Internet and censorship happens on the first day,” added Chio.

Making matters interesting, Egypt announced it would apply for the first Internet domain in Arabic in an effort to boost online access in emerging markets, such as North Africa and the Middle East.

The new domain will be “.masr”, or literally “.egypt” in Arabic. Differentiating it from other domains is that it will be written using the Arabic alphabet, not the typical Latin letters of the “.com.” If successful, Egypt will be the first Arabic speaking nation to achieve an all Arabic Internet. Minister Tarek Kamel said that the initiative is part of the country’s push toward broadening access to Arabic speakers. He said that the vast majority of Egyptians, and many Arabs in general, are unable to use the Internet without Arabic access.

Kamel added that by registering it “will offer new avenues for innovation, investment and growth, and hence we can truly and gladly say the Internet now speaks Arabic.

“It is a great moment for us,” Kamel said of the domain opportunity.

However, despite the efforts, a number of analysts and observers are not sold on the idea. While they say it will certainly increase Arabic generated content, it will do little to curb the rising censorship that has left the region fraught with uncertainty.

“What we have to see is how much government will be into this project. If it is just their initiative and then will open it up to private users and their websites, then it will be great, but if it tries to keep control of the content it will be a government instrument to censor and trap users,” said Ayman el-Din Said, a European-based web technician.

“We have to watch and see. It is a good idea initially and when we look at it, it really could bring in millions of users who haven’t felt comfortable as of yet to use the Net. It will give many more jobs to the region,” he added.

The Middle East and North Africa is a top priority of Internet companies, including Yahoo, which purchased Maktoob.com, an Arab online community website earlier this fall. Yang told the conference there are over 300 million Arabic speakers across the globe, but only one percent of online content is in the language. He added that Yahoo plans to bring its mail and messenger services to the Arabic speaking world next year, but did not say when exactly that would occur.

Either way, the Internet in the region is still in its infancy. Less than half of all Egyptians use the Internet on a regular basis. The market remains wide open and companies like Yahoo have seen this, analysts argue.

“They know the importance of the Internet for the region and the fact that there is a long way to go, so it only makes sense to have an all Arabic domain. Whoever gets on this now, will make a lot of money,” said Mohamed al-Anany, who works at an Egyptian-based Internet company. “It might be too early to tell really what is going to happen, but it is exciting.”