For a long time now, whenever anyone started talking about the relative openness of the Net in Lebanon, people have shushed each other or touched wood, so as not to jinx our one very important advantage over the rest of the region: we have very little restrictions on how we use the machine. Wouldn’t you know, these superstitious acts now seem to have lost their power.
We don’t know many details yet, but there’s a ghastly Internet/information law before parliament in Lebanon that certain parties are trying to push through. A scanned copy of the law, written in Arabic, was posted on Slideshare yesterday. If you can read Arabic or know anything about the law, please go and comment and/or translate a bit:
A Facebook page has also been created, with the following ominous description and call to action:
Oppressive ICT Law passed Common Committees today in the Lebanese Parliament
The Deputy Speaker of the House forbids MP’s from discussing the 200+ articles text and did not allow any questions and answers among them.
Lebanese People I call on you to react. They are pushing us back to the middle ages.
Please Like the Page, subscribe to http://blog.gabrieldeek.com/ and follow @stopthislaw on Twitter to keep up with developments. Also, if you can volunteer to translate parts of the law, please get in touch or leave a comment with a way for us to reach you.