After brief window of access during COP27, WhatsApp calls blocked again on Vodafone Egypt

WhatsApp calls are once again blocked for Vodafone Egypt network users, according to Mohamed Taher, a tech researcher at Masaar Technology and Law Community

WhatsApp calls have been blocked intermittently on various ISPs in Egypt since 2015. The restrictions were lifted for the duration of this year’s edition of the United Nations Climate Conference, COP27, during which tens of thousands of visitors from around the world attended two weeks of events hosted in Sharm el-Sheikh.

At the outset of the summit, many attendees complained that they were unable to access certain websites via Egyptian internet service providers. Following the outcry, access to the website of Human Rights Watch and to the self-publishing website Medium was lifted during the conference, while the functionality of WhatsApp calls was also restored on all ISPs within the country.

While the VoIP service is still available on some ISPs, Taher told Mada Masr, it is once again blocked on Vodafone Egypt.

Digital rights groups have taken legal action to determine whether VoIP services are designated unlawful in Egypt by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority without result. 

Access to hundreds of websites has been restricted in Egypt since 2017, according to research conducted by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, including that of Mada Masr. “Nobody knows which entity is officially responsible for blocking these websites and which tools it is utilizing to implement the block,” AFTE said, pointing to exceptions that include websites blocked by a committee whose remit is to investigate Muslim Brotherhood assets, and 44 websites that were blocked via a directive from the state media watchdog.

Mada Masr Media filed a lawsuit in June 2017 to contest the block imposed against its website. In September 2018, the Supreme Administrative Court referred the lawsuit to experts at the Justice Ministry to review the technical aspects of the ban. The results of the review are yet to be made public.