Cairo: An Egyptian lawyer has filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking YouTube in the country until all anti-Islamic content is removed from the video-sharing website.
Appeals lawyer Mohamed Hamed Salem said he decided to file the lawsuit after YouTube featured a 13-minute film anti-Islam movie that led to a wave of instability across the Muslim world last week and left two dead in Egypt.
Salem filed the lawsuit against Egypt`s prime minister, Egypt`s minister of information, communications and IT, and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
"Not only has YouTube insisted on showing the original movie, but now there are at least 50 different videos showing various clips of the film," al-Aharam quoted him as saying in a report.
"We need to block YouTube in Egypt because this would be a robust response, and we need a robust response so that what happened is not repeated again," Salem, who filed the lawsuit yesterday said.
Earlier this week, Muslim Brotherhood member Hassan El-Brins called for a one-month boycott of Google to protest the latter`s refusal to remove the offensive film from YouTube.
The Egyptian Association for Legal Development and the Ufuk Association for Development, two NGOs, both filed additional lawsuits yesterday aimed at blocking Google in Egypt.
Salem, however, said that blocking the California-based IT powerhouse which purchased YouTube in 2006 was not feasible.
"Blocking Google would be impossible to apply. Blocking YouTube, however, would be much more practicable," he said.
Salem has previously filed several controversial lawsuits, including one that resulted in a ban on the `Egypt Today` talk show hosted by anti-revolution figure Tawfiq Okasha.
Salem has also filed a lawsuit to demand that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi`s two sons be stripped of their Egyptian citizenship since they also hold US nationality.
PTI
