Egypt has blocked 21 websites, including Huffington Post Arabi and Qatar-based Al Jazeera, for "supporting terrorism" and "publishing lies," local media reported on Wednesday.
This comes soon after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia took similar measures, banning Al Jazeera and other Qatari news sources.
Two security sources told Reuters that the outlets were blocked for either having ties with the Sunni Islamist organization Muslim Brotherhood or for being funded by Qatar.
"A senior security source said 21 websites have been blocked inside Egypt for having content that supports terrorism and extremism as well [as] publishing lies," state agency MENA wrote.
The security source told MENA that authorities will take legal action against the websites.
Reuters attempted to access five websites named by local Egyptian media, including the Al Jazeera website and Mada Masr, and found them all to be inaccessible.
Reuters also found that the Huffington Post's Arabic website was blocked, but the international website was still accessible.
Al Sharq, Masr Al Arabia, Arabic 21, Horria Post and Klmty have all been barred, according to Egyptian Streets.
Independent news platform Mada Masr shared a statement that says: "There are ways of accessing our website for now through proxies and cached copies. It’s not ideal, but let’s be agile. We are the children of margins; from there we emerge and re-emerge."
Hours before Egypt enacted its decision, the UAE and Saudi Arabia blocked Qatari news sources including Al Jazeera.
The measures were taken after controversial statements attributed to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the emirate's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani were posted by the Qatar News Agency (QNA).
The statements have since been removed and Qatar's Government Communications Office has said that the news agency's website and its official Twitter account had been hacked.
Other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as well as Egypt, have called out Qatar's ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted from power in Egypt in 2013 and is considered to be one of the most influential Islamic organizations in the world.
While Qatar has supported the organization, the UAE has designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. In 2014, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Doha due to a rift regarding the Islamic organization.