03-08-2025
Seven TikTokers arrested on immorality charges as authorities respond to campaign against ‘vulgar' content
At least seven content creators have been arrested over recent days by security forces, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights on Sunday.
The crackdown comes amid the resurgence of a campaign spearheaded by social media users and lawyers seeking to prosecute content creators, mainly women, for publishing material deemed morally offensive on TikTok and other platforms.
The Interior Ministry commented on several of the arrests which it said were made after dozens of complaints were filed with authorities against several TikTokers for publishing content that violates 'public morals.'
Similar accusations have previously been used by authorities to justify the arrest of dozens of content creators over the past five years, particularly women publishing on TikTok.
This time a government regulatory agency has met with the application's regional representative to discuss changes to content moderation and standards, according to MP Ahmed al-Badawy.
Among those directly targeted by the campaign were influencers Om Makka and Om Sagda, who produce comedy videos on Tiktok. The Interior Ministry announced on Friday that it had arrested both women, stating that they were detained due to complaints that they published videos containing 'indecent language' and transgressing 'public decency' as well as complaints regarding their 'sources of wealth.'
When questioned, the ministry said both women attested to publishing content of this kind in order to 'increase their views' and generate financial gain.
However, lawyer Hany Sameh, who has previously acted to defend women accused in similar cases, questioned the legal pretext for the arrests, pointing to the lack of legal definition for the moral charges often used to prosecute women making online content.
'Whoever talks about values must define them, because these definitions are important,' Sameh told Mada Masr.
He added that charges of offending social values under Articles 25 and 26 of the Cybercrime Law, are unconstitutional due to their vague language and lack of clear legal definition.
'Are they the values of the North Coast or the Fifth Settlement? Salafi values? Or whose values exactly?,' Sameh asked.
The lawyer also pointed to the contradiction between accusations made against women TikTokers and the provisions of the law regulating the censorship of creative works, which rules that artistic and cinematic productions should align with social values and norms.
'What the TikTok girls did doesn't even amount to a tenth of what was shown in last Ramadan's TV series, so why were they arrested?,' Sameh asked.
In its Sunday statement, the EIPR called on the Interior Ministry and Public Prosecution to stop using moral or class-based charges against digital content creators.
The fiscal allegations against Om Makka and Om Sagda's sources of income are also unjustified, according to Sameh, who said that private individuals or businesses should not be liable to complaints filed regarding illicit gains.
The Interior Ministry said that both influencers' 'sources of wealth' were called into question in the legal complaints submitted against them, but illicit gains charges can only be levelled at the directors of government agencies and Parliament members, Sameh said.
'As for accusations and reports of tax evasion,' he continued, 'no action may be taken in these cases except upon a special request from the Finance Ministry, which provides a reconciliation route as well as a legal one.'
The security campaign against the TikTokers comes in parallel with the resurgence of a years old social media campaign titled ' Let's Clean It Up.' Posters have used the hashtag in recent days in posts mentioning a number of TikTokers by name alongside calls for the platform to be either taken offline in Egypt or moderated to prevent 'vulgarity' and a threat to the stability of Egyptian society.
Among the named Tik Tok creators was Suzy al-Ordoniya, who has faced ongoing legal action over recent months in relation to her online activity. She was arrested from her home on Saturday according to media reports, due to complaints related to her content.
Suzy was arrested prior to that in March, when she was held for 15 days in remand detention on charges of joining a terrorist organization and publishing false news. The Juvenile Appeals Court also overturned a two-year prison sentence against her in January, fining her with LE300,000 instead.
According to EIPR, over 32 lawyers have acted alongside the social media campaign to file official complaints against ten TikTokers, eight of whom are women. Domestic media reported that the complaints were filed in the Agouza, Warraq, Dokki and Imbaba police districts.
The campaign, first launched in 2020, is behind the surge in content creator arrests over the past few days, EIPR said, adding that, 'at its peak, this campaign has been accompanied by moral and security panics, sometimes over allegations of human trafficking and other allegations of organ trafficking.'
Over the past five years, EIPR lawyers alone received, reviewed or monitored 109 different cases targeting content creators, the organization said, including over 151 individuals accused of attacking 'Egyptian family values.'
The organization anticipated that it expects the scale of the current arrest campaign to be much wider.
The campaign is already being reinforced by official steps to address content moderation, according to Ahmed Badawy, head of the House Telecommunications Committee that produces much of the regulation around digital spaces and activity in Egypt, who commented on the arrests in an interview on Al-Nahar TV channel on Saturday.
Badawy said that recent meetings between the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and TikTok's regional director, held in the presence of the House Telecommunications Authority, were convened to address concerns over content on the platform.
The committee requested that the platform's content be improved, Badawy said, citing violations of regulations and standards, as well as breaches of the Cybercrime Law and the Law on Combating Information Technology Crimes. Badawy added that TikTok's representative requested a three-month time-frame to address the violations.
Defending the arrests, Badawy said that, 'when there is a violation of the law, we apply the law,' pointing to the information technology law and legislation on 'broadcasting unacceptable material that does not comply with controls and standards.'
Badawy also stated that continued legal violations through the broadcast of 'unacceptable content' warrants an immediate block of the application, adding that many countries have previously warned or banned apps that violated their laws.
'Any post today that violates regulations, standards or the law is being taken down,' the MP said, adding that the continued publishing of such violations — including indecent videos that go against the customs, traditions, values, and morals of society — requires state intervention to preserve social values and ethics.'
