Internet censorship and surveillance by country harsh punishments for individuals that do not follow government policies are the norm. The Committee to Protect Journalists has pointed to Cuba as one of the ten most censored countries around the world. The Internet in Egypt was not directly censored under President Hosni Mubarak, but his regime kept watch on the most critical bloggers and regularly arrested them. At the height of the uprising against the dictatorship, in late January 2011, the authorities first filtered pictures of the repression and then cut off Internet access entirely in a bid to stop the revolt spreading. The success of the 2011
Hosni Mubarak Judicial sources confirmed that the court had upheld a petition from Mubarak's longtime lawyer that called for his release. A day later, interim prime minister Hazem El Beblawi ordered that Mubarak be put under house arrest. On 21 May 2014, while awaiting retrial, Mubarak and his sons were convicted on charges of embezzlement; Mubarak was sentenced to three years in prison, while his sons received four-year sentences. The three were fined the equivalent of , and were ordered to repay . In November 2014, conspiracy to kill charges were dismissed by the Cairo Criminal Court on a technicality. The court