Egyptian president, US Embassy in Twitter spat over ‘Daily Show’ video

{mosads}Youseef, who is often referred to as Egypt’s version of Stewart, was arrested and interrogated earlier this week over criticism he levied against Morsi and Islam. According to the BBC, he was held for five hours and later released on bail of 15,000 Egyptian pounds.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the arrest “evidence of a disturbing trend of growing restrictions on the freedom of expression” during a briefing with reporters on Monday.

The Cairo embassy’s Twitter feed has served as a political flashpoint before. Ahead of the September 2012 embassy attacks in Egypt, the Twitter account posted a message that seemed to apologize for anti-Muslim activity in the U.S., saying the embassy “condemn[ed] efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

That led to criticism from the Romney campaign, which charged that the Obama administration sympathized with the embassy attackers thought to be protesting an anti-Muslim video, and a disavowal from the Obama administration.

“The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government,” an administration official said.