Samenvatting

This article argues that the contemporary conceptualization and the framing of fake news reflect an almost purely western perspective prompted by western crises such as the Brexit or the 2016 US election. To provide an account of fake news in non-western context, the article follows a situated knowledge approach to explore the fake news phenomena In Egypt. The article concludes that fake news has been used as an authoritarian practice to limit access to information and as an illiberal practice to penalize any other voice or opinion against the government relying on the penal code.