CAIRO – Egypt’s top administrative court ruled on Saturday that regulatorsmust block the video file-sharing site YouTube for one month over a videothat denigrates the Prophet Mohammad, a lawyer who filed the case.
A lower administrative court had ordered that the Ministry ofCommunications and Information Technology block YouTube, owned by Google,in 2013 over the video, but the case was appealed and its ruling stayedduring the appeal process.
The ministry at the time said it would be impossible to enforce the rulingwithout also disrupting Google’s Internet search engine, incurringpotentially huge costs and job losses in the Arab world’s most populouscountry.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was notimmediately available for comment. YouTube appeared to be working in Egypton Saturday as of 1250 GMT (8.50 a.m ET).
The film “Innocence of Muslims”, a low-budget 13-minute video, was billedas a film trailer and made in California with private funding. It provokeda wave of anti-American unrest in Egypt and other Muslim countries when itappeared in 2012.
Mohamed Hamid Salem, a lawyer who filed the case in 2013, said the rulingalso orders that all links that broadcast the film be blocked.
The ruling is considered final and cannot be appealed.