Because of Videos on Tiktok: Six Influencer in Egypt sentenced to prison

The allegations of the judiciary are: violation of public morality, violation of family values, incitement to immorality and / or Prostitution. Six young Egyptians have met in the last week to imprisonment and heavy fines sentenced. You are an influencer on the inside with hundreds of thousands of followers. Since April, nine of them were arrested. Her crime was basically to spread via platforms such as Tiktok short video clips, in which you can move around, be silly, dance and play back the lips occurs to pop music.

Christoph Ehrhardt

a correspondent for the Arab countries, based in Beirut.

In international comparison, the tame performances. One of the now convicted women, the archeology student, Haneen Hossam, wearing even a head scarf. In Egypt, the performances are enough to be sentenced to two to three years in prison. Hossam was also on the dock, because they are young – year – old specifically full women had to be called, as you earn money to publish Videos on the net.

The rulings this week are the first against Stars in the social media. Haneen Hossams lawyer Ahmed Abdel Naby said it was a worrying precedent. The Video, for which she was convicted, is clearly a proof of her innocence.

The target of a whole Generation can intimidate

The space in which Egyptians speak without fear, and show is again shrunk a little. The Federal government Commissioner for human rights policy and Humanitarian aid at the Federal foreign office, and Bärbel Kofler, shows itself to be dismayed: "This kind of restriction of freedom of expression, directed in particular against young women, the communicate successfully in social media on a variety of topics, must be strongly rejected," according to you. "These judgments with questionable legal basis to pursue the goal of a whole Generation of brave young women to intimidate!"

It is dangerous to comment on Online platforms such as Twitter critical of the Regime and ruler Abd al Fattah al Sisi. The security authorities keep a close eye on the social media, which the Regime has little direct access – other than on the very few exceptions, docile local press. In 2018, a strict law was passed to "cyber crime". Since then, Egyptians have to be careful to not post anything in social media, what could you declare the repressive apparatus as a threat to national security – especially those which thousands follow.

The article, which relate to questions of morality, are extremely vague. You speak only of violations of the "family values of the Egyptian society" or "public morality". Lawyer Abdel Naby said the Portal "Mada Masr", one of the few remaining Egyptian publications, the reports, in spite of all the danger was critical: "the criminal law article need to be very specific." Under such laws, the people did not feel safe. According to the words of human and women's rights activists, the sense is exactly the thing. "The state is trying to control the Internet, and on the other hand, the women," said Lobna Darwish, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, "Mada Masr".