
Egypt Sentences Tourist to 8 Years Jail for Complaining about Vacation Online - glitcher
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/07/lebanese-tourist-sentenced-eight-years-egyptian-prison-viral-video
======
canada_dry
I traveled to Egypt during a short lull in the revolution (early 2011) and
couldn't get over the state of tourism then - I can't imagine how desperate
it's gotten nowadays.

From the moment we left our hotel room we were incessantly harassed by vendors
hawking everything from taxis to fake artifacts. Sometimes there would be a
dozen of them surrounding my family stopping us from moving.

I have a very thick skin having traveled widely, but it got to a point where
we couldn't wait to get out of Egypt!

------
JeanMarcS
That doesn’t sound as a good idea for a country with lots of tourists like
Egypt to start putting them in jail.

Not a good signal for others.

~~~
ap3
Definitely not worth it from the tourism angle

------
ams6110
Good lesson in the value of being familiar with the local law when you visit
places that don't protect basic rights you may take for granted.

~~~
mirimir
I was going to say something like that, but it seemed too cruel.

~~~
ams6110
I'm not saying she deserved it. Sorry if it sounded dismissive.

~~~
mirimir
Sorry to sound critical of you. As I said, I almost posted it.

There is a lesson here about how essentially innocent people get caught up by
draconian and unappealable corporate policies. In this case, about video
licensing. And, seriously, there's a whole VPN industry focused on evading
geo-restrictive content availability. But being naive, she didn't think enough
like a criminal. And used a valuable Microsoft account.

And seriously, If she had thought it through, she could have used a different
VPN, and a different persona with a throwaway Microsoft account. And her
primary account would be fine now.

I do try to reach naive people like her. To explain the concept of
compartmentalization, and the basics of using virtual machines (VMs) with VPNs
and/or Tor. To create unassociated personas. Show them how to play safe.

But it's hard. I don't speak Turkish. And I can not move freely in meatspece
as Mirimir.

------
glitcher
The article mentions that she was partially a victim of the social media
algorithms that helped her post go viral. But even if the social media
engagement algo's weren't so tuned for spreading outrage (since that is so
successful at increasing engagement), I can't help but worry that governments
like this may start preemptively searching for these types of content
violations regardless of if the message becomes widespread.

~~~
matt-attack
Surely the point of posting it was to spread the word. It going viral seems
consistent with her original intent.

------
pascalxus
Lesson learned: Never ever go to Egypt.

~~~
616c
That's logical and mature. Surely America or other states other than Egypt
would never detain people for potentially libelous speech, no matter how bad
the optics are.

\- A Person Visiting Egypt Routinely and Finds All of Our Nations an
Embarrassment

~~~
DenisM
For all practical purposes defamation is not a crime in the US[1]. Some states
still have the laws on the books, but they are not enforced anymore.

The rest of the world however is still a mixed bag [2].

[1] [https://cpj.org/reports/2016/03/north-
america.php](https://cpj.org/reports/2016/03/north-america.php) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation)

------
ap3
Scratches Egypt from the list

------
misterprime
Not sure what to say about this. Proud to be an American I guess. Free speech
is a glorious thing.

~~~
glitcher
You may want to keep an eye on things like this then:

[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/18/doct...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/18/doctors-
hospitals-sue-patients-posting-negative-online-comments/763981002/)

Hopefully this nonsense gets stopped in the courts.

~~~
AdamM12
Different that it is a private person suing you vs the state throwing you in
jail imo. Also having a family member who's been on the side of one of those
sites where people can post anonymous reviews (BadBizReport I think) they are
usually bunk. Promotes salacious allegations as restitution is hard to come by
and expensive.

[https://gizmodo.com/when-a-stranger-decides-to-destroy-
your-...](https://gizmodo.com/when-a-stranger-decides-to-destroy-your-
life-1827546385)

Also the guy in the article definitely seemed to be harassing the doctor with
those emails about people getting arrested.

------
mirimir
So would Lebanon have extradited her, if she had waited to post it?

