In Egypt, the cybercrime bill, which was introduced in September 2016, is now under discussion by the parliamentary Communication and Information Technology Committee (CITC) and upon its approval, it will be sent to the parliament plenary for vote. The discussions on the bill, which started in March 2018, witnessed a strong government presence, including representatives from ministries of interior, defence, and telecommunications and information technology. The discussions which continued into April suggested harsh penalties for web administrators that violate the law. The liability of service providers to protect users' data, the protection for bona fide parties, and the definition of national security provided by the law were further tackled during the last meetings.