It’s been almost six years since the short film Innocence of Muslims (pictured above) sparked global protests, but the video’s controversial portrayal of the prophet Muhammad is still causing consequences for the platform that initially hosted it. Five years after an Egyptian court order a one-month YouTube ban in the North African nation, that suspension is set to go into effect, with Egypt’s highest court upholding the decision.
Innocence of Muslims, a low-budget short noted for its negative depiction of Islam’s founding prophet, led to national YouTube bans in countries like Iran and Pakistan after its 2012 release. Egypt opted for it own YouTube ban in 2013, but that order has been delayed by numerous legal appeals. Finally, according to Reuters, the top Egyptian court has compelled the nation’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to carry out the original decision.
Reuters noted that the one-month ban could incur large costs and cause job cuts in Egypt, owing to the disruption of the nation’s Google platform. Egypt’s community of YouTube stars, including the vlogger Shady Srour, could be affected as well.
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In Egypt, YouTube has sometimes been used to share controversial material. In 2014, for example, the director of the award-winning documentary The Square (which tells the story of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Egypt) used the world’s top video site to share her film with Egyptians, who had previously had little access to it.
It’s not known when the ban will go into effect, but when it does, Egypt will become one of the few countries in which YouTube is not available. Other nations that fall within that category include China and North Korea.
