Hackers Display Porn on Major Cairo Highway Billboard
A cyberattack on an international firm’s website sent explicit footage to a prominent screen in Egypt, triggering a government response and social media reaction.
By Lily Carter ·
A large digital billboard on the 26th of July Axis in Cairo displayed pornographic video on Thursday, interrupting traffic on one of Egypt’s busiest thoroughfares. The incident, confirmed by the interior ministry, caused drivers to stop and record the screen with their mobile phones, spreading images of the glitch across social media platforms.
The video included text that read, “Leaked by: Ch, 19ylegal never and nivex,” along with the username of a Telegram channel identified as @LeakersGov. On Friday, that account posted a message criticizing the Egyptian government. It stated that the country remains under a dictatorship and that the government maintains power through repression while the population struggles to improve its living conditions.
Egypt has been governed by military leaders since the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. The interior ministry explained that the billboard belonged to a local advertising firm operating under a contract with an international company. The ministry said the international firm’s website suffered a cyberattack that caused the unauthorized footage to appear on the screen. Officials noted that the breach occurred simultaneously in several other countries, though they did not specify which nations were affected.
Local media reports suggest that similar explicit content appeared on electronic billboards in Iraq, Malaysia, and Brazil. The ministry announced that legal proceedings have been initiated to address the incident. It did not identify the international company involved in the advertising contract.
Public reaction in Egypt was divided. Many citizens expressed shock at the display, while others found the event amusing. Egyptian society is generally conservative and upholds strict moral codes aligned with Islamic sharia law. Local authorities have previously turned off electronic advertising boards after similar incidents of pornographic footage appearing on public screens.
Egyptian courts have attempted to block access to pornographic websites, but private online access remains common. According to Pornhub Insights data from 2025, Egypt ranked among the top 20 countries for visits to pornography websites. The United States held the first position in that ranking.
Source: CNN
