Egyptian authorities have been rounding up teenaged TikTokkers with millions of followers, detaining dozens in recent weeks on accusations ranging from violating family values to laundering money.
Police have announced dozens of arrests and prosecutors say they are investigating at least 10 cases of alleged unlawful financial gains. They have imposed travel bans and asset freezes and confiscated devices.
Critics say the escalation fits into a broader effort by the state to police speech and codify conduct, in a country where social media has long served as one of the few alternatives to traditional media largely controlled by the state.
Many of those who have been detained were only small children when activists used Facebook to mobilise the 2011 protests that toppled long-serving president Hosni Mubarak.
Lawyers say indecency laws are vague. The authorities can go through a TikTokker’s entire back catalogue of posts, and if they find even a single post they consider indecent, they can declare influencers’ income illegal and charge them with financial crimes over their earnings.
Mariam Ayman, a 19-year-old who has gathered 9.4 million followers posting videos since she was a schoolgirl under the name Suzy El Ordonia, has been jailed since August 2. She faces charges of distributing indecent content and laundering 15 million pounds ($300,000).
The Interior Ministry said she was arrested after the authorities received complaints about her posts. In her final video, posted the day before her arrest, she seemed aware that she was facing a threat.
“Egyptians don’t get arrested just because they appear on TikTok,” she said.
She acknowledged that in previous videos she may have “agitated, cursed, or told a bad joke” but said this was meant to vent frustration, and “not meant to teach the younger generation to follow suit”.
Her lawyer, Marawan al-Gindy, declined to comment directly on her case, but said that in general indecency laws were being applied arbitrarily.
“There is a law that criminalises indecent acts, but what we need is consistent application and defined rules, not just for TikTok, for all platforms,” he said.
Reuters