Egyptian police have arrested six members of an online platform who are accused of spreading false news and having links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that it had identified an “unlicensed online page" called Matsadaqsh (Don't Believe It), which it alleged was operated from abroad and published misleading reports and distorted facts.
"An investigation found that the page is part of the media committees of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood and is run by Muslim Brotherhood member Abdel Rahman Shoukry Ali Abdel Jalil Mansour, who is a fugitive abroad," it said.
"He is assisted inside the country by a number of Muslim Brotherhood members who prepare false and fabricated reports and send them to him for publication on the aforementioned page in return for financial payments they receive from abroad," it added.
"Following the completion of the necessary legal procedures, six members of the aforementioned media committee were arrested. One of them is registered with the Journalists’ Syndicate, while the others are not members of the syndicate."
The ministry said the head of the Journalists' Syndicate was informed of the journalist's arrest and the circumstances surrounding it, and that "legal procedures have been initiated".
Matsadaqsh is an online platform that claims to specialise in fact-checking Egyptian and Arab content and producing open-source reports and investigations. Its Facebook page has more than 1.3 million followers. In a statement, it denied the accusations.
Since President Abdel Fattah El Sisi came to power in 2013, authorities have outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, declared it a terrorist organisation and prosecuted thousands of its members and supporters.
