The Cabinet Media Center launched on Monday, 19 October 2026, as part of the “Egypt Forum 2026” events, the “Chat EGYPT” platform to counter “rumors” using artificial intelligence technologies. The platform allows the user to enter a news item or a text, or to upload an image or a video clip, to examine its accuracy and detect falsification.
The platform includes four sections, namely the news corner, awareness, statistics and citizens’ inquiries, and a database containing so far more than 21,000 data items, along with the daily statements of officials in the media, and a decentralized system that allows every official body to enter its own approved data and information. The platform relies in verification on what official bodies publish.
The launch of the platform comes while six journalists remain in pretrial detention, who are the entire editorial team of the independent fact-checking platform “Matsda2sh” inside Egypt: Mohamed Ashraf Abu Omeira, Abdullah Qadri, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel. Security forces arrested them in raids that began on the evening of 28 September 2026 and continued on 29 September, and the Supreme State Security Prosecution is holding them in Case No. 8083 of 2026 Supreme State Security.
Amnesty International said, in an urgent action on 16 October 2026, that it learned that security officers subjected the six journalists to torture, that they were forcibly disappeared for a period ranging between five and six days before being brought before the prosecution on 4 October, and that they face charges including “financing terrorism”. The organization quoted the Public Prosecution as saying, in a statement on 7 October, that it found no visible injuries on the six journalists, and that forensic examinations on three of them found no injuries or signs of violence. The international labour network LabourStart, in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists, launched on Tuesday, 20 October, a campaign calling on Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Interior Minister Major General Mahmoud Tawfik to release them immediately.
Photo: Abdelrhman 1990 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
