Representative of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Hossam Abdel Mawla stressed that the complete blocking of games that urges young people to commit suicide and murder is almost impossible, as operators of such games could resort to sending the games to users via social media platforms.<\/p>\n
The NTRA addressed telecommunications companies to block the \u2018Blue Whale\u2019 game in accordance with the top prosecutor\u2019s ban decision, said Abdel Mawla, expecting no positive result in this regard though.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Communications is governed by a law defining its terms of reference, which do not include banning content, according to Abdel Mawla. The ministry\u2019s task is only limited to providing service to citizens, he said, adding that the ministry does not have a means to block content.<\/p>\n
MP Sherif al-Wardany objected to Abdel Mawla\u2019s statement stating that countries such as Tunisia succeeded in blocking the \u2018Blue Whale\u2019 game. He added Egypt should use the same means to block the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game is available to everyone, despite the arrest of its creator,\u201d Abdel Mawla said, promising to provide a study conducted by the ministry in cooperation with telecommunications companies after two weeks on means of blocking the game.<\/p>\n
The Blue Whale, also known as \u2018A Silent House\u2019, \u2018A Sea of Whales\u2019, and \u2018Wake me up at 4:20am\u2019, was created by Russian Philipp Budeikin. It targets mainly \u2018vulnerable\u2019 teenagers by assigning them to do tasks set out by administrators over a 50-day period, with the final challenge asking the player to commit suicide.<\/p>\n
The game has reportedly taken the lives of over 130 people around the world since 2013, including Egypt. Egypt\u2019s top prosecutor ordered the ban of the game earlier in April.<\/p>\n
The game begins with simple tasks before gradually asking the user to commit self-harm. At the end of the period, the user is asked to take his\/her own life or a member of their family.<\/p>\n
Since the release of the app, hundreds of suicide cases were reported across the world, all linked in some way to the game.<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s creator Budeikin was arrested in 2017, accused of inciting at least 16 schoolgirls to commit suicide by taking part in the game. The 21-year-old, who studied psychology, confessed to the crimes saying that he considers his victims as \u201cbiological waste\u201d who were \u201chappy to die,\u201d and said that he was \u201ccleansing society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Representative of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Hossam Abdel Mawla stressed that the complete blocking of games that urges young people to commit suicide and murder is almost impossible, as operators of such games could resort to sending the games to users via social media platforms. The NTRA addressed telecommunications companies to block the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":87012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[36018,37291,37290],"class_list":["post-87010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-blue-whale","tag-hossam-abdel-mawla","tag-ntra"],"yoast_head":"\n