Cryptocurrency & Free Speech Finance

Matsada2sh, Arabic for “don’t believe it”, was founded in 2018 to check the facts in a country where the official narrative goes largely unchallenged. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly told his people to only believe what he says. What started as a fact-checking platform has since expanded into investigative reporting covering Egypt and other Arab countries, digging into everything from discrepancies in official figures to hidden cracks within state institutions. Its Facebook page, the primary channel through which it reached readers inside a country that has reportedly blocked its website, accumulated more than 1.3 million followers. On the nights of 28 and 29 September 2026, Egyptian security forces arrested all six members of its editorial team in a coordinated operation spanning multiple governorates. After days of forced disappearance, they emerged before the public prosecutor, facing charges of being members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and spreading fabricated news in exchange for foreign funding. The detained journalists denied these charges, accusing state security of torturing them, which the Ministry of Interior denied in a statement. It was the first time an entire newsroom team had been arrested in Egypt. “Even when state forces stormed Mada Masr several years back, they only detained several journalists at the time, and these were quickly released,” Mohamed Lotfy, co-founder and executive director of Egyptian Centre for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), a homegrown organisation defending rights in Egypt, told Index on Censorship. “This is an alarming precedent.” President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly told his people to only believe what he says The arrests brought the number of journalists behind bars in Egypt to at least 26, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights — all facing security and political charges, including belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news. What Matsada2sh actually did “Did the state want journalism from abroad? We chose to do journalism from Egypt. Why are we paying the price?” With these lines, a post published on Matsada2sh’s Facebook page on 3 October began defending its editorial team against the Ministry of Interior’s accusations – accusations replayed across countless talk shows and headlines run by state-aligned media. What distinguished Matsada2sh was its method. “It used open-source tools to overcome the limited access to information in the country, investigate and report stories other media platforms haven’t covered, and challenge the official narrative on many issues,” said Mina Thabet, head of the Middle East and North Africa at PEN International. Over the years, Matsada2sh dug into official narratives, challenging officials’ statements inflating immigrants’ numbers as another justification for economic hardships; exposing otherwise overlooked decline in spending on the education system; breaking down legal and economic expressions for a general audience. It also revealed concealed disagreements within institutions long considered opaque. “Recent reports about discontent among judges and public prosecutors over new hirings revealed the scale of favouritism and patronage, but also brought before the public disagreements within the judiciary that are meant to remain hidden,” said Lotfy. “Matsada2sh relied in its reports on official and verified sources, precisely the kind of fact-based journalism that made it dangerous to the system. Its reporting revealed information about those in power and undermined the trust of citizens in official narratives, which the authorities characterised as destabilising public security.” “We chose to do journalism from Egypt. Why are we paying the price?” In 2023, the platform published reporting on the identities of Egyptian nationals, including security officials, on board a private plane seized in Zambia carrying cash and weapons. A journalist was arrested within hours and later released. Matsada2sh invoked the incident directly: “If we are Brotherhood [members] and funded [from abroad], why did [the] security apparatus clear us in 2023?” The exact trigger for the September 2026 arrests remains unclear. Co-founder Abdelrahman Mansour, who lives abroad and has denied all accusations of ties to the Brotherhood, had played a pivotal role in the 2011 uprising through a Facebook page he co-founded, which helped mobilise mass protests that ultimately toppled President Hosni Mubarak and threatened the military’s grip on the country. Since seizing power in 2014 following a coup against Mohamed Morsi – the country’s only freely elected president and a senior Brotherhood figure – El-Sisi has taken systematic measures to prevent any recurrence. A media landscape hollowed out from within Egypt’s media consolidation happened through both censorship and ownership. In 2017, the General Intelligence Service established Eagle Capital, which acquired controlling shares in the Egyptian Media Group, a nominally private conglomerate that now controls major television channels and newspapers. The State Media Monitor identifies three structures through which the government has consolidated control of the media sector: the constitutional bodies of the National Media Authority and the National Press Authority, as well as the Egyptian Media Group. Three media laws passed in 2018 – Laws 178, 179, and 180 – together with a cybercrime law the same year, gave the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) sweeping powers to block websites, revoke licences, and refer journalists to prosecutors. By the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, Egypt ranked 170th out of 180 countries. “Since President El-Sisi seized power in 2014, spaces for independent and free media have shrunk significantly,” said Thabet. “These practices and policies have created a fragile press and a new breed of journalism that does what the security apparatus tells it and never questions the authorities’ narrative – with many even turning to propaganda platforms for the regime.” This left Matsada2sh, “along with a handful of other online platforms – which continue to operate without mandated licence from the SCMR – the only independent, professional and serious journalism in a country with a dying media landscape,” said Lotfy. “With little to no challenge to official narratives, policies, and decisions,” Thabet said. “The regime lost its tolerance for criticism and, within a few years, grew sensitive and insecure about even the simplest questions.” Noting that the exact reason for the attack on the platform is unclear, he added that “it is clearly part of El-Sisi’s crackdown on press freedom and a manifestation of his zero-tolerance policy toward criticism.” In its 3 October post, which garnered nearly 30,000 reactions, Matsada2sh wrote: “We belong to neither side. We didn’t want a press that parroted a ready-made narrative simply because it originated domestically, nor did we want a press that acted according to a political discourse imposed from abroad. It was a difficult gamble. We chose ourselves. We chose Egypt, and the press we dream of. A press that is impartial and unbiased, where ideology doesn’t trump professionalism, where agendas aren’t imposed on truth, and where there is no place for political affiliations.” *Journalist used a pseudonym for security concerns. READ MORE

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Cryptocurrency & Free Speech Finance explores the role of digital currencies in protecting expression and enabling financial freedom. From Bitcoin and blockchain-based payment systems to tokenized support for creators and censorship-resistant transactions, this category covers how crypto empowers individuals and movements to bypass centralized control. Stay updated on the tools, platforms, and policies shaping the future of money and free speech.

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