Law No. 180 of 2018 on the Organisation of the Press, Media and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation

Law No. 180 of 2018 on the organisation of the press, media and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation is a central pillar of Egypt's framework for controlling online expression. Published in the Official Gazette in August 2018 as part of a package of media and cybercrime measures, it restructures the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) and grants it expansive authority over print, broadcast and, most significantly for digital rights, online and social media. The Law's defining feature for the online sphere is that it brings personal websites, blogs and social-media accounts with 5,000 or more followers within the definition of regulated 'media', subjecting them to SCMR oversight and to licensing. This sweeps individual high-reach social-media users into a regime designed for media institutions. The SCMR is empowered to monitor such accounts and to suspend or block any personal website, blog or account that it considers to have published 'false news' or content inciting violation of the law, violence, hatred, discrimination, racism or intolerance, or that damages individuals' reputations or insults religions, with only a narrow avenue of appeal for affected parties. The Law also imposes licensing requirements and substantial fees on websites and digital platforms, which in practice operate as a barrier to entry for independent and critical online media. This instrument is classified under Digital Rights rather than Platform Liability because its character is rights-restrictive: although it uses the mechanisms of licensing and platform regulation, its operative effect is to restrict online speech, civic space and press freedom, rather than to allocate commercial liability for third-party content. Human-rights organisations, including ARTICLE 19 and Reporters Without Borders, have criticised the Law as failing to meet international freedom-of-expression standards and as legalising pre-existing restrictions on independent media. The media law does not operate in isolation. It works together with the Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law No. 175 of 2018, which provides for the blocking of websites on national-security or economic grounds and for communications surveillance and data retention. Read together, the two laws give the Egyptian state overlapping statutory bases to license, monitor, restrict and block online content and accounts. The Law's oversight protections are weak: blocking and suspension powers vest in the SCMR, a body whose independence has been questioned, and judicial review of its decisions is limited, so the Summary should not be read as implying robust safeguards for affected speakers.

1. 1Restructures Egypt's media regulator, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR), and confers broad powers over print, broadcast and online media.
2. 2Treats personal websites, blogs and social-media accounts with 5,000 or more followers as 'media outlets' subject to SCMR oversight and licensing.
3. 3Empowers the SCMR to suspend or block websites, blogs and personal/social-media accounts that publish 'false news' or content said to incite law-breaking, violence, hatred, discrimination, or to damage reputation or religion, with only a limited appeal mechanism.
4. 4Imposes licensing requirements and fees on websites and digital platforms, functioning as a barrier to independent online media.
5. 5Operates as a content-restriction and civic-space instrument rather than a commercial platform-liability regime, which is why it is classified under Digital Rights.
6. 6Works in tandem with the website-blocking and surveillance powers of the Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law No. 175 of 2018.