EU hails pledge by Egypt for ‘open’ Net

CAIRO: Europe’s Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes yesterday welcomed a pledge by Egypt to maintain an ‘open’ Internet that would not be subject to government shut downs, as was the case during the 2011 uprising.

Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, met yesterday with Egypt’s Telecommunications Minister Atef Helmy during a visit to Cairo.

“The minister and I are on the same page ... we are believers in an open Internet, a free Internet, and not being blocked by a government for political reasons,” Kroes said. “We agreed that it is of the utmost importance to ensure that the Internet remains an open platform, that all attempts to fragment it into national “Intranets” are resisted,” Kroes and Helmy said in a joint statement calling for “openness, inclusiveness, accountability, effectiveness, coherence and respect for applicable laws.”

Kroes and Helmy said that Egypt pledged to “work together with the Commission and all other interested countries and stakeholders to develop GIPO as quickly and inclusively as possible, on the basis of a shared commitment to an open, unfragmented and rules-based Internet.”

The agreement hopes to avoid a repeat of a government-ordered Internet cut in January 2011 aimed at quelling an uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak that relied heavily on social networking for mobilization.