Turkey has cracked down on them… What fate awaits the Brotherhood media?

Since 2011, the Brotherhood has relied on its media system as one of the most important arms of empowerment in Egypt and the Arab region. Although the emergence of the Brotherhood media preceded this date by nearly three decades, with the launch of the first official website of the organization bearing its name, then the succession of media platforms that were used extensively for propaganda and attracting new members. It started in several languages to address the East and the West. However, the political fluidity experienced in the region after 2011 allowed the organization to move in vast areas and play on platforms as a tool to reach power and influence, thus getting out of its traditional development and becoming more influential.

Empowering arm

Observers believe that the media of the Brotherhood and their supporting countries played the most important role in creating the political atmosphere for its accession to power in several Arab countries following the Arab Spring revolutions. They also contributed to the creation of a mind-boggling picture that is different from the truth about the goals and ideology of the organization, while the Brotherhood and other extremist organizations used it to sway opponents and offer inducements to viewers that are in accordance with the requirements of the period characterized by revolution and the desire for change, which led people to believe the Brotherhood and trust its decisions.

However, the Brotherhood’s media system has never succeeded in defending the organization, whose truth was quickly revealed a few months after it came to power. It has lost their credibility and has become one of the disinformation tools rejected by the public, especially in Egypt. After the fall of the Brotherhood from power following the popular revolution in June 2013, the Brotherhood’s media system lost their weight and dissipated exactly like the organization. It has even fallen to the public all the media platforms that were instrumental in supporting the Brotherhood and opposing Egyptians, according to Egyptian media experts.

Since 2014, the organization’s channels, most notably “Al-Sharq, Mekameleen, Watan and Al-Midan,” as well as dozens of affiliated news sites, started broadcasting from outside Egypt, relying on hostile content against the Egyptian state. However, last March 20, the Turkish government officially announced the cessation of this inciting political speech, which has been broadcast from its territories for nearly 7 years, saying that the step comes within the framework of the desire to reach an understanding with Egypt.

London is an alternative to Istanbul.. Will it succeed?

Sources close to the group, who spoke to Arab websites, said that “Matar” was forced to stop his program, and that it is likely that the Turkish government will take a final decision to close all platforms next May. Meanwhile, the international organization is preparing to transfer all of them to London and other European countries where the organization has the ability to move freely, without being prosecuted by the security authorities, as the situation in Turkey has become.

Ibrahim Rabie, an Egyptian researcher specializing in terrorism and a defector from the organization, said, “Since 2014, the Brotherhood’s media system has taken on a new face. It has become a fierce platform for attacking Egypt from abroad, and has excelled in igniting fires and sedition and promoting rumors.

Miserable failure

Speaking to Hafrat, Rabie said, “Despite the huge funding that this organization received from several countries and intelligence agencies in order to harm the security and stability of Egypt, it failed miserably in reaching or convincing people; “Because what it has been presenting has always been marred by lying, misinformation and outright hostility towards the Egyptian state, and this system has quickly fallen because of the colossal failure I have been through, and it has not been able to achieve any of the tasks assigned to it.”

Regarding Egypt’s desire to stop these platforms, Rabie said he does not believe the Egyptian side has ever raised the issue of the Brotherhood in discussions with the Turkish side, “because all of their matter is no longer of importance, nor is it a pressing card. On the contrary, there are many issues that are the priority of the state.”

“Turkey is pandering through the Brotherhood; It has been using them for years to play a functional role in the process of its regional struggle with the major powers of the Middle East, and if the understandings with Egypt are not reached, the Brotherhood and their media may return to their former state.”

An Arm to Demolish States

“The group relied on the media and electronic battalions, just like its reliance on armed organizations in their war against Egypt and a number of Arab countries after 2013, by misleading and spreading rumors to push public opinion towards trends and movements that are in line with the group’s interests, which depend on sabotage and destruction, and the destruction of countries as a tool to return to power and engage in political action,” he said.

A study issued by the Early Warning Center for Studies in mid-February confirmed that as a result of the failure of Brotherhood channels to achieve a strategic impact inside or outside Egypt, the movement’s senior leadership, in agreement with the channel financiers, was forced to restructure its channels and platforms. The media is one of the main pillars of the Brotherhood’s spreading and control project, and for this reason, the movement is paying great attention to this issue, especially during the last seven years, which witnessed the end of the organization’s rule in Egypt.

The study, entitled “One source : one goal: Dismantling the Brotherhood’s Complex Media Networks” pointed out that the political and media situation that followed the 25 January 2011 revolution contributed to the reformulation of the Brotherhood’s concept of mass media and effective media networks, and this situation led the movement’s leadership to adopt new projects, the ultimate goal of which was to promote them, and to herald its call inside and outside Egypt.