Discord is an online messaging platform that first gained traction for being popular among the gaming community [Timon Schneider/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]
Amnesty International has called for the release of dozens of Egyptians detained over their participation in an online forum, in a move that experts say marks a shift in government targeting against “a new generation of internet users”.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Amnesty said that at least 50 people had been arrested for being part of the Discord group Gen Z002, where people have been openly critical of the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Formed in October 2025 by exiled activist Anas Habib, and styled after Gen Z protests in Nepal and Morocco, the group held a poll in January 2026 calling for the toppling of Sisi, with over 330,000 responding.
According to Amnesty, Gen Z002 also featured thread-based conversations, live voice chats, a book club, online first aid courses, and fitness sessions.
Discord is an online messaging platform built for gamers that allows users to host multiple channels on dedicated servers for topic-based messaging as well as voice and video calls.
Its usage has since spread outside the gaming community and seen adoption by various communities worldwide, including Morocco’s 2025 GenZ 212 protests in late 2025.
The 50 detained are being investigated in two cases by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) on terrorism-related charges and publishing false news charges, Amnesty said.
This includes six people between the ages of 19 and 46 who were arrested by the National Security Agency at their homes and workplaces and forcibly disappeared between six and 40 days.
According to one of those detained, a 19-year-old student, officer at an NSA facility subjected him to electric shocks and hanging in stress positions while blindfolded during questioning.
Amnesty’s regional researcher Mahmoud Shalaby said that “it is outrageous that people in Egypt can end up arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared and at risk of torture and other ill-treatment simply for being part of an online group”.
“Everyone has the right to join online groups and express criticism of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government. Exercising the right to freedom of expression online and offline should never be grounds for arrest or prosecution,” Shalaby added.
Target no longer organised opposition, but broad digital public
Since a 2013 coup saw the reestablishment of military rule Sisi, Egypt’s government has cracked down on peaceful dissent, with tens of thousands of political prisoners remaining behind bars.
Typifying the state of affairs is the inauguration of the so-called “Octagon” in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, which Sisi said was aimed at securing the state against any repeat of the 2011 revolution that toppled long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.
The arrests of those who were expressing their criticism and beliefs through Discord are part of a wider expansion of state repression against the country’s digital youth, according to Ramy Raoof Halim, a Nonresident Fellow at TIMEP.
Speaking with The New Arab, Halim said that the arrests of members of Gen Z002 “reflect a broader pattern where digital spaces that allow people to discuss politics, share criticism, or organise collectively are increasingly being treated by authorities as a security threat”.
“Amnesty’s documentation shows how authorities are applying tools historically used against organised political groups to a new generation of internet users,” he added.
Egypt has a history of using digital media for political organisation and discussion, including during the 2011 revolution, which saw widespread use of digital organising through Facebook and Twitter, a phenomenon dubbed by Western media at the time as the ‘Facebook revolution’.
For Halim, the use of Discord and other encrypted platforms is a natural extension of bypassing the authorities’ clampdown on public spaces, which in recent years has moved beyond Facebook and Twitter into new platforms such as TikTok.
With authorities arresting content creators on TikTok for violating ‘family values’, Halim said that there has been an important shift in the focus of the state apparatus towards “the broader digital public”.
Despite this, Halim says that in the aftermath of the revolution and the state’s crackdown on free expression, “civic expression has not vanished; it has moved into new forms and new spaces”.
“Young Egyptians are creating communities, sharing information, discussing politics and expressing grievances through digital platforms – and this will continue to happen in more creative ways online or offline.”
“The government’s response to these spaces suggests that authorities are not only concerned about organised opposition; they are also concerned about the possibility of independent social and political conversations emerging outside state control, in mediums beyond their reach and comprehension,” Halim added.
