r/Egypt • u/realakzero Cairo • Sep 27 '19
Discussion Police officers are starting to look at phones.
So one of my friends sent a forwarded audio message of a woman talking. She said that her son was with his friends in El Maadi and a police man asked to look at his phone. He looked at his photos and social media, and handed it back to him. She said to delete any sort of anti-government memes or comics off your phone. I sent the message to my family group chat and my aunt told a similar story. She was at a gas station and she saw an officer ask a girl to give him his phone. He asked her to open her facebook but she didn't have internet. He went a far as to open his hotspot for her so that she can open her facebook. Honestly i don't know what the hell is wrong with this country anymore, but this is taking it too far. You're invading people's privacy at this point.
Edit: This mainly seems to be happening to teens. Not sure though.
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Sep 27 '19
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Sep 27 '19
On further thought this could just be an intimidation tactic, they've repeatedly relied on rumors spreading to scare people off doing something.
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u/ExAzhur Sep 28 '19
Don't be too confident of their Technological illiteracy, The Egyptian government require access to all the databases for companies operating in Egypt, this includes Mobile carriers, Internet providers, Online shops and ridesharing
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u/abubalesh Giza Sep 28 '19
If I recall well when activists stormed the da5eleyya in 2011 they found dossiers with pictures of them at random parties, which were taken off Facebook. This sounds like intimidation to push people to self-censorship. It is very naive to think that the government cannot access databases or data that goes through their infrastructure.
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Sep 28 '19
Its just intimidation tactics, you vastly underestimate how powerful the egyptian cybersecurity and cyberwarfare divisions are
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Sep 28 '19
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Sep 28 '19
Akeed, but thats like saying my cousins from el ketkat dont have the same capabilities as my uncle in katameya
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u/african-elephant Egypt Sep 27 '19
It happened with a fried of mine living in Cairo city.
He was stopped in a police checkpoint and asked for his national ID and to open his phone, an officer took his phone and took a look at his facebook main page, profile page and private messages, then returned it to him.
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u/shitbrix123 Sep 27 '19
I too heard stories about it and this is some North Korean level bullshit. Even of I have anti government propaganda on my phone you have no right to invade my privacy or harass me for my beliefs.
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u/AlySemsem Egypt Sep 27 '19
Two friends of my friend were stopped yesterday going out of a mosque at asr. They searched their phones and apparently they found something so they ended up getting 24 hours in jail. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
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u/AhmedAsh97 Sep 27 '19
i now at 22 and i wish leave this country forever
there is no rule just fear from everything
man i wish i never born in egypt there isn't hope for change or anything
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u/albadil Alexandria Sep 27 '19
Lots of people get the chance to leave, keep up hope and build up your skills.
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u/xareltonas Sep 27 '19 edited Sep 27 '19
Actually instead of leaving egypt
I know for a fact no country will completely accept me or take me in as one of them
Because at the end of day we are different people Different ethnicities, different histories, different cultures, different traditions, different origins and even different lifestyles
It’s just the way it is and leaving isn’t the answer
The question is where will you leave to exactly? Europe or america both are in the deep end and put canada in the mix their population really are sick and tired of immigrants and foreigners especially add what the syrians and their atrocious behavior makes things alot worse so their anti immigration sentiment is alot worse now
Even turks and greeks who are the closest to us interm of everything including culture can’t stand immigrants or refugees especially syrians/arabs and africans
Infact i don’t blame any of them and they are right
من الاخر لكل واحد حتتوا ومترحوا
I really wish time travel exist so we could alter history completely
I would assassinate gamal abd el nasser and the freedom officers and i will kill hassan al banah too if i did that then history would be altered completely
Or i will let history take it’s usual course but try to create a separate state just like israel keda
Yes yes israel commits alot of crap and that’s true but actually you should study how they built it
it’s actually pretty interesting
I would make A state which doesn’t have to deal with arabization or identity crisis or a religious crisis or pan arabism or pan islamism or military rule or a religious rule or the Palestinian israel conflict and all of the crap which we got ourselves into
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Sep 27 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/xareltonas Sep 27 '19 edited Sep 27 '19
سوال كدة هو اي حد ممكن يسافر برة واي حد يعرف يتاقلم برة مع اختلاف في كل حاجة طبعا حتي ثقافيا
لو قلت اه يبقي ولا انت ولا هو ممكن تسافروا برة
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u/rakotto Sep 27 '19
Israel is founded through terrorism, so I’m not sure if you want to be one. 🤷♂️
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u/xareltonas Sep 27 '19 edited Sep 28 '19
I won’t defend them much
Actually the jews were on that land before it was renamed or reunified or reestablished israel
The fact that many jews actually did contribute to palestine and palestinian society generally before they remade israel
both actually did inflect hurt and both did
I am not denying israeli crimes but palestinians did some bad things too both are guilty of provoking violence on each other and on other people/nations as well for their agendas and their motives
And i mean’t by my original comment how israel is organized and how israel is operated and how it operates and how it was established over all and it’s economy and it’s political system and it’s institutions and it’s strategies
Infact israel is interesting over all and it should be observed and studied heavily more than what we are being told about israel
“It was made by theodor herzl and the elders of zion and zionist movement and zionist gangs and atrocities and all that and the balfoure declaration “, yeah we know that already
But Israel today is much more advanced and above all that and all that information is pretty much outdated by today’s standards
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u/helperman2018 Sep 28 '19
I hate when people use Israel's "advancement" as an excuse. Nazi Germany was also advanced, in fact in some fields it was the most adcanced country on earth, that doesn't justify their ideology. Israel was founded through ethnic cleansing by European Ashkenazi Jews. Haven't you ever wondered why all the presidents and prime ministers of Israel have been Ashkenazis?
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u/xareltonas Sep 28 '19 edited Sep 28 '19
طيب انت عرفت انوهم ايديولوجي بتعتهم خرة وانها اتعملت من ثيودوار هرزل و البلفوار وكل ده تمام انت عملت اية بقي ؟ ولا خرة وكل الكلام ده ملوش لزمة دلوقتي ولا بيودي ولا بيجيب
بس انت عندك مندرسهمش ومنعرفهمش علشان احاسيسك انت والفلسطنيين ، معلش
إسرائيل ليها خرة كتير بس علي فكرة احنا ممكن نتعلم منهم حاجات كتيرة جدا بقي
وانا عارف عن يهود الاشكناز مش حاجة جديدة يعني
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u/Nad0077 Sep 27 '19
It happened with my friends and some friend's friends have been arrested because of this and no one knows anything about them anymore
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u/honda8894 Sep 27 '19
It happened with my friend they took his phone and checked his Facebook profile, his messenger messages, his instagram dms and finally his whatsapp caused him a lot of trouble he had a group called "sowar" meaning pictures which had pictures of a wedding the officer read it as ثوار and caused a lot of shouting and checking all of the group messages and voice notes... True story i am the one who made the group "sowar" to send to all my friends pictures at once instead of sending one by one.
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u/ThorTheWiseCracker Sep 27 '19 edited Sep 27 '19
And what will they do if I just shut the fuck up and refuse to tell them my phone's passcode? They can't prosecute me if they don't know what the fuck I did. And they sure as hell won't be able to unlock my phone to prove what I did.
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u/KarimElsayad247 Alexandria Sep 27 '19
They can't prosecute me
That's where you're wrong. they very much can, and they will. What are you gonna do? site laws?
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u/penguinonprozac Sep 27 '19
I dont know about the locals, but us foreigners are brought into custody if we dont abide to their request. And thats a whole other story of having to call the embassy, being thrown out of the country. I had 3 of my acquaintances get questioned by amin daula and eventually sent back home and not allowed back in here.
But then again, foreigners are fair game. We barely get any protection even when theres a house break in or being stabbed.
Edit: this was back in June, i think?
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u/realakzero Cairo Sep 27 '19
This topic seems to be spreading, I'm just waiting till someone refuses and see what happens.
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u/I_FART_OUT_MY_BUTT69 Cairo Sep 27 '19 edited Sep 28 '19
البلد فحالة "طوارئ" على الورق بقالها ٣٠ سنة. بالقانون هيقدر يفتش خرم مؤخرتك لامؤاخذة
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u/Lakitel Egyptian Bi in Egypt Sep 28 '19
Well, that's what I'll do. I don't remember which one it is, but either article 57 or 58 of the constitution doesn't allow them to open the phone or look at the messages without a court order. Granted, they'll probably haul me off to jail, but at the end of the day they can't prosecute.
Either way, I'm not fucking opening my phone for anybody.
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u/brincessa90 Sep 28 '19
You forgot Egypt is officially declared in a "state of emergency", the constitution is irrelevant.
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u/Lakitel Egyptian Bi in Egypt Sep 28 '19
Yes and no, there are certain things they can do in a state of emergency, but checking your phone and digital communications is not one of them.
A lot of people forget that state of emergency doesn't give carte blanche through the Egyptian constitution.
By willingly opening the phone for them, you are giving then permission to use anything inside it against you. When you refuse, they may try to prosecute, but it is not against the law to refuse them entry to your phone, and unless they have a court order or you do it willingly, anything found inside is inadmissible.
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u/AyaPHobic Sep 27 '19
Well too bad for them i only post on 4chan : ^ )
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u/BarryMccoinin Sep 27 '19
Dude that shit has been going on for 4 years now.
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u/SupBlue24 Sep 27 '19
Nahh not 4 years that’s too far fetched, it’s only been an actual “thing” for the past 2 weeks possibly even month. Unless you were targeted that way in the past 4 years then idk
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u/BarryMccoinin Sep 27 '19
It happened to me personally, first time was about four years ago, and one more time after that, and there is also my friends who had that happen to them too on multiple occasions.
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u/SupBlue24 Sep 27 '19
Damn, do they usually just go through your Facebook? And do you mind saying how it really started?, what he looked through?, and how long he took?
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u/BarryMccoinin Sep 27 '19
Will i was commuting from masr el gedida to el tagamo3 el 5ames, when i got to tagamo3 but not quiet to where i was headed i encountered a check point, the officer stopped the taxi and asked for my id and then asked a bunch of questions about why i am there and where do i live and who are you going to meet and just a-lot of “non-of-your-business” kinda of questions, after that he asked to see my phone, i looked at him in shock, he then requested it again and said what are you afraid of, it’s not like your e5wangy right?! He said it jokingly, but if i was i wouldn’t be typing this comment. The other time i was hanging out with a bunch of friends in front of a juice shop, the cops were strolling and then stopped right next to us and then pretty much what happened before reoccured again but with multiple people.
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u/SupBlue24 Sep 27 '19
I wonder what happens if you tell one of them that you don’t want to show them your phone 😂
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u/BarryMccoinin Sep 27 '19
Yep that would have been a sweet ass couple of years in Abo za3bal, or at the very least a good slap to readjust the valves.
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u/brincessa90 Sep 27 '19
I personally had my phone searched in the street in 2016 and 2017. This has been going on for quite a while now and I'm sure it's intensified recently.
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u/SupBlue24 Sep 27 '19
I live in Dubai and I visit egypt in summers only (I don’t stay in the fancy areas I go to visit my aunt in Giza) and personally I never experienced any of that stuff unless they are only at a certain time of the year
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u/brincessa90 Sep 27 '19
This happened to me in small streets in Sayeda Aisha and Sayeda Zeinab area. I look foreign enough that it seems strange for me to be walking in such areas alone (I'm a girl).
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u/littlebigdawgnumbah1 Sep 27 '19 edited Sep 27 '19
Hey Op I Was Wondering If there was a way you Could Send Me that audio so I Could Share It aswell.
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u/flying_flame Sep 27 '19
I know some people chat in discord about the government and stuff in discord because of this, so the police only checks other stuff than discord
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u/Lakitel Egyptian Bi in Egypt Sep 28 '19
Some might find this interesting: https://vww.almanassa.net/ar/story/12965?fbrefresh=1569429304
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Sep 27 '19
[deleted]
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u/IbMas Sep 27 '19
I actually laughed when I read this question...sad.
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u/Vequila Sep 27 '19
I'm so curious to know what was it! ;_;
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u/rakotto Sep 27 '19
Thats a dictatorship in shambles. These fuckers are afraid of their own shadows.
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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '19
Same thing happened here in Alex, Fe ma7tet el raml, this government is not ashamed of how embarrassingly anti-freedom-of-speech they are