There are over 300 million Arabic speakers in the world and fewer than one percent of online content is in Arabic, according to Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

It was therefore a step in the right direction when Egypt was the first to apply for an Arabic extension as part of ICANN’s Fast Track Process that began today. The forthcoming TLD is pronounced ‘masr’, meaning ‘Egypt’.

Reporters Without Borders noted the irony that Egypt was freeing the Internet for those who do not speak English, while Egypt has roughly censored content within its own borders.

In particular, Egyptian police arrested two bloggers, Mohamed Adel, 20, and Amr Osama, 19, and their lawyer, on November 3rd based on the allegations that they were “spreading false news and rumours liable to disturb the peace.” Adel was previously detained for three months and tortured after being arrested in November 2008. Is Egypt a liberator or dictator of the Internet, you decide.

**Update: ICANN received 6 requests from countries representing 3 different languages so far.