Cairo: 9 April 2019

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) releases its first quarterly report of 2019 on the state of the Internet in the Arab world.    It addresses the situation of Internet access in 10 Arab countries; Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Sudan, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Iraq, Morocco and Algeria.

The report details the state of the Internet infrastructure and ANHRI’s estimates of the number of its users in each country, as well as its role in bringing about social change in some countries and the measures carried out by some authorities towards the Internet deeming it as the enemy in the battle for change claimed by citizens.

The report also monitors examples of the violations committed against Internet and social media users and the prosecution of social media activists for allegedly misusing social networking websites and the blocking of these websites.

Underlining the violations practiced by some Arab governments against Internet users, the report also sheds the light on Egypt’s Ministry of Education’s attempt to use the Internet services to deliver the examination of the first-year high school students for the first time this year, and the re-blocking of WhatsApp in Saudi Arabia after it suddenly worked; this is in addition to the Ministry of Communications agreeing to block the ride-hailing apps “Jeeny” and “Queenie”, the slow Internet speed and interruption of the service in Algeria on the first of March, and the banning of hundreds of websites in Morocco.

You can check the full report through the following link:Internet in the Arab World during the First Quarter of 2019

Internet in the Arab World during the First Quarter of 2019 word

Internet in the Arab World during the First Quarter of 2019 pdf