Egypt arrests TikTok creators in latest morality crackdown
Interior ministry said the creators’ videos ‘violate public morals’, while rights defenders claim the move mainly targets women online
Egyptian authorities have arrested at least eight TikTok content creators in less than a week on vague charges including “indecency”, in what rights defenders warn is a sweeping crackdown mainly targeting women online.
According to the interior ministry, the creators’ videos contain “obscene language”, “violate public morals” and constitute “a misuse of social media”.
The advocacy group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has accused authorities of seeking to control public discourse, urging them to “stop prosecuting online content creators on vague, ethics- and class-based charges such as ‘violating Egyptian family values’”.
The wave of arrests followed an online smear campaign and a complaint filed by 32 lawyers that alleged the videos “posed a danger to young people”, without explaining how.
The ensuing crackdown “is the largest since 2020”, said Lobna Darwish, EIPR’s gender and human rights officer.
In 2020, Egyptian security forces launched a similar crackdown mainly against young women dancing and lip-synching on TikTok, deeming the content too suggestive.