Egypt is facing an unprecedented war of rumors during the current stage, targeting all aspects of economic, social and political life, and affecting the national economy, and the rapid spread of these rumors has helped the tremendous progress in the means of communication, especially social networking sites on the Internet.
In light of the political conflicts that the Arab and international reality is witnessing, and their repercussions on the Egyptian interior, the term fourth generation wars has appeared, in reference to the attempts of the major countries to achieve their destructive plans against these countries, including Egypt, through various means that rely on information wars and spreading rumors. With the aim of reshaping the region in a new way that achieves the interests of hostile countries and blocs.
The main research problem was how to confront rumors, in light of the difficulty of some members of society distinguishing between the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the promotion of destructive rumors through social media, especially in the aftermath of two revolutions in Egypt, and what resulted from the growing phenomenon of rumors, and their Negative effects on the Egyptian economy in the context of targeting the state with fourth-generation wars.
The research aims at a set of goals, the most important of which are: to identify the negative effects of the spread of malicious rumors, and their impact on the Egyptian national economy, and to arrive at an effective vision to confront them and avoid their economic risks.
The research reached a number of results, the most important of which are:
-           Rumors are one of the most important mechanisms of fourth-generation wars, which target economic and social variables, which negatively affect the Egyptian national economy.
-           The economic aspect is not only affected by rumors on individual variables, but extends to affecting societal variables such as the local currency, and affects financial and monetary institutions such as the capital market and the banking system.
-           The spread of the rumor hinders the monetary and financial authorities from making the right decision, and increases the costs of intervention necessary to correct the imbalance, as happens when the local currency is exposed to a rumor related to the future of its exchange with foreign currencies.
The research ended with a number of recommendations, the most important of which are:
-           Transparency in publishing accurate news on topics of public interest, provided that it is broadcast on social media sites and media channels with high viewership rates, as a proactive step by the state, with a speedy response to any malicious rumors, and the detection of their promoters.
-           The Central Bank of Egypt appoints an official spokesperson to respond immediately to any rumors related to the banking sector, clarifying the facts with numbers.
-           Continuing to issue awareness bulletins to educate stock exchange dealers about the dangers of spreading rumors, and to clarify the penalties for their promoters in order to achieve general deterrence.
-           Reconsidering the legislation related to information crimes and spreading rumors, and working to toughen penalties against its promoters.