11 arrested over Facebook pages

Egyptian authorities arrested 11 Muslim Brotherhood members accused of running Facebook pages that incite violence against the police, expanding a crackdown on followers of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to include social media.

The arrests Wednesday and Thursday are a sign that after largely crippling the group in a wave of arrests and killings of protesters, security agencies are going after younger members who use the Internet to keep protests alive and are looking for evidence of links to a growing insurgency and violent backlash.

Bombings and drive-by shootings targeting police officers have accelerated in retaliation for the killings and jailing of Brotherhood members and other Islamists. The attacks have been claimed by an Al Qaeda-inspired militant group, but the government accuses the Brotherhood of orchestrating the violence and has branded it a terrorist group, an accusation it denies.

According to the privately owned newspaper Al Shorouk, the government is preparing a new anti-terrorism law making it illegal for websites to promote “ideas or beliefs calling for use of force or violence.” The bill, drafted by the Justice Ministry, called for penalties of no less than five years in prison for those creating such sites.

Leading liberal and former lawmaker Amr Hamzawi was referred to trial this month on charges of insulting a judge because of a Twitter posting critical of a ruling.