A government campaign targeting creators of “downward” content on the Internet is causing controvers

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[size=52]A government campaign targeting creators of “downward” content on the Internet is causing controversy in Iraq[/size]

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An Iraqi man looks on his phone at Abboud Skaiba, a well-known Iraqi content creator on TikTok, on February 12, 2023.
AFP Ahmed Al-Rubaie
Baghdad (AFP) - YouTube and TikTok are popular in Iraq in Among content makers, they sometimes publish light and funny clips, and sometimes suggestive ones, but they are being pursued on charges of publishing “low” content, which activists consider muzzling mouths and a threat to personal freedoms.[/size]
[size=45]And the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced in mid-January the formation of a specialized committee to combat “low content” that “contradicts morals and traditions” in a society that is still very conservative.[/size]
[size=45]In a promotional video for the campaign, the ministry considered that “this content is no less dangerous than organized crime, because it is one of the reasons for the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”[/size]
[size=45]The first sentence in this context was issued to a six-month prison term against Umm Fahd, a content creator who is followed by more than 145,000 people on TikTok, because of videos in which she appears in tight clothes, while she dances to the tunes of Iraqi music.[/size]
[size=45]Days later, Asal Hussam, another Iraqi content creator, was sentenced to two years in prison for comments deemed sexual and videos in which she was wearing a military uniform that showed her body.[/size]
[size=45]In total, more than a dozen people have been arrested for “despising content,” according to an Interior Ministry official who preferred not to be identified.[/size]
[size=45]The official confirmed that a platform set up by the ministry for the purpose of receiving complaints related to the content issue has so far received 96,000 reports on the subject.[/size]
[size=45]- 'Loose terms' -[/size]
[size=45]In the city of Amarah in southern Iraq, an investigative judge recently heard four people known on social media, accused of insulting “morals, public decency and outrage,” according to a statement from the Supreme Judicial Council.[/size]
[size=45]Among these released defendants is Abboud Skiba, who has 161,000 followers on TikTok, and is known for his humorous videos in which he repeats words that sound like English words with a strong, but incomprehensible, American accent.[/size]
[size=45]The other is Hassan Al-Shammari, who is followed by more than three million people on the Chinese video application. In his videos, Hassan wears a djellaba and puts a black veil on his hair, disguised as a woman. He calls himself “Madiha,” which represents the personality of a strong Iraqi woman who comes from a popular environment.[/size]
[size=45]In the last video he posted after his release, he announced that he had deleted some posts that contained “abuse,” but confirmed that he would continue producing.[/size]
[size=45]In total, the Iraqi judiciary took measures against 14 people in the “low content” case, six of whom were sentenced to imprisonment, according to the judge specialized in publishing and media issues, Amer Hassan, in an interview with the Iraqi News Agency.[/size]
[size=45]In the interview, the judge said, “We started with cases that are unanimously rejected,” explaining that “cases that are not so clear, that is, that may confuse freedom of expression with immoral content, the court will resort to electing specialized experts” to decide on them.[/size]
[size=45]The director of the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, Mustafa Saadoun, explains to France Press that "there is no law for degrading content, and the state has no right to interfere in such a matter."[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The state relies on the penal code, and the law contains loose and stretchy terms such as public morals and outrage, all of which are subject to interpretation and interpretation, and because of them a person who has not committed any bad act is arrested, and a person who violates the law may escape through them.”[/size]
[size=45]- Gagging mouths -[/size]
[size=45]After decades of conflict and sectarian violence after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Iraq has known relative stability despite the political conflicts and violence that shake the country from time to time.[/size]
[size=45]However, the restrictions, especially the social ones, are great on the rights, especially those of women, and on freedoms, political opposition, and sexual minorities, and they collide with a very conservative, patriarchal, tribal culture.[/size]
[size=45]The United Nations Mission in Iraq in June denounced the "environment of fear and intimidation" that curtails freedom of expression.[/size]
[size=45]Saadoun says that there is no justification for excluding content makers on the Internet, “and trying to threaten them, and through them we send messages to others that they need to reduce their criticism, under the pretext of low content, or under the pretext of insulting the state.”[/size]
[size=45]He considers that this campaign is “an attempt to test the waters before going to a more dangerous stage, which is the stage of holding all those who criticize state institutions and politicians accountable.”[/size]
[size=45]However, the Director of Information and Relations at the Ministry of the Interior, Major General Saad Maan, said in an interview with the Iraqi TV channel “Al-Rasheed” that “the issue has absolutely nothing to do with freedom of expression,” adding that “these… do not represent Iraq, Iraqi women, or Iraqi society.”[/size]
[size=45]Iraqi writer and political analyst Ahmed Ayash al-Samarrai wrote in a tweet, "Twenty years ago, and we see every day low content presented to us by chance politicians, leaders of political action, and men credited with religion."[/size]
[size=45]He added, “Sectarian strife, racial discrimination, incitement to violence, and others, all of which harmed society and caused divisions within it, and tarnished its image.”[/size]
[size=45]He continued, "I personally support the measures taken by the Iraqi judiciary... with the content creators, but in fairness, their content was not more inferior to those I mentioned above."[/size]
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