Intelligence-owned media group moves to regulate livestreaming after price hike coverage

An internal directive in mid-July put a temporary ban on all live-streamed content on the social media channels of news platforms run by the intelligence-owned media company United Media Services, according to a source from the company who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity

Broader regulations for live content are being prepared in the meantime, and will include a ban on "any controversial reporting related to prices except official statements and commentary,” said the source, adding that both Al-Watan and Youm7 received heavy criticism for publishing livestreams that showed reactions from the general public to fuel price hikes on July 13.

Plans to effectively place a gag on the outlets’ coverage of rising prices come amid a wave of inflation that hit a three-year peak in April and May and was exacerbated again this month by hikes to the cost of diesel and other fuels — which has had a domino effect on consumer goods and strained household budgets nationwide.

The content regulations are being designed after a July 13 internal directive banned all live-streaming from UMS outlets, primarily Al-Watan, Youm7, Al-Dostour and Sawt al-Umma, continued the source. 

Employees of some of the outlets were instructed to delete old live-broadcast stories from their web pages, two other sources from Al-Watan and Youm7 told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. A livestream program on Watan Plus called Refrigerator Live, in which a woman sat above a refrigerator cutting okra, and a Youm7 program following a member of the public traveling from Qena to Cairo by foot were among the content that they were ordered to remove, they said.

A statement earlier in the month in which the president gave a public address criticizing the media for a proliferation of cooking programs, instead of informational content, was also instrumental in bringing about the company’s decision to ban livestreams, according to the first source.

The media conglomerate is now designing a livestreaming policy document under which, the first source said, “any controversial reporting related to prices except official statements and commentary” will be disallowed, along with coverage of “superstitious topics, funeral processions, and sexual-related incidents.” However, under some conditions, the source added, some terms will allow for “entertaining topics.”