"What is DPI Technology, and Why is Egypt Abusing It?"

An engineering student in Egypt found herself with no access to remote classes as authorities in Egypt unilaterally blocked the VPN service she had relied on to study. 

Egyptian authorities are using the Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technique to impede access to virtual private networks (VPNs), commonly used in Egypt to access restricted content.

Between 2017 and 2020, Egypt blocked 600 websites and online services, including 400 virtual networks, proxy service providers, and 11 news websites. Regional and international organizations asserted that the Egyptian state uses DPI technology to intercept communications and impose censorship.

Undeterred by dissenting voices, authorities persisted in limiting the options available for people in Egypt to access online content freely.

In August 2022, the Egyptian government took its first measures to ban the use of VPNs...

Internet users started complaining about connectivity hitches when using OpenVPN. Eventually, communication via this protocol became impossible. The Egyptian government used DPI technology to throttle internet connection and identify data transferred via OpenVPN, PPTP, and L2TP protocols...

“Those able to connect to paid virtual networks can readily access any content, while those without the knowledge or financial resources will find themselves deprived of such access.”...

An anonymous network engineer specializing in the field contends that “this pretext of banning free virtual networks in Egypt is merely a smokescreen.” He explained that artificial intelligence products are perfectly functional in Egypt and can be accessed through payment despite attracting few users. He added that banning free virtual networks is nothing but “authorities’ way of securing a share of the fees paid to VPN service providers.

As more VPN applications get blocked and DPI technology enforced, internet users find themselves defenseless, stripped of the protective shields that once provided concealment against the authorities’ gaze.