Egypt social media users with more than 5, 000 followers to be treated as media outlets

Twitter users in Egypt with more than 5,000 followers will be classed as media entities amid crackdown on dissent. [Courtesy]

Egypt’s parliament has passed a law giving the state powers to block social media accounts and penalize journalists held to be publishing fake news.

Under the law passed on Monday social media accounts and blogs with more than 5,000 followers on sites such as Twitter and Facebook will be treated as media outlets, which makes them subject to prosecution for publishing false news or incitement to break the law.