Iraq: 152,000 complaints of digital content

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[size=52]Iraq: 152,000 complaints of digital content[/size]

[size=45]The Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced that it had received 152,000 reports of complaints about the content provided on social networking sites inside the country, through the “Balag” platform, which is concerned with dealing with Iraqi complaints and reports about digital content.[/size]
[size=45]In early January, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior had launched a platform on its website called “Report”, concerned with reporting media content published on social media.[/size]
[size=45]The official Al-Sabah newspaper, on Saturday, quoted the Director of Relations and Information at the Ministry of Interior, Colonel Omar Khalil Ismail, as saying that “the ministry has received 152,000 reports regarding content on social media, and has taken legal measures regarding those complaints,” without revealing the nature of those procedures. However, he pointed out that “those publications included an offense to public decency, and carried negative messages that offended modesty and destabilized society.”[/size]
[size=45]While an officer in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior stated that the procedures include rejecting the complaint in the event that the content does not violate the law, or summoning the owner of the content. He said that "the cases of arrest and referral to the judiciary were very few."[/size]
[size=45]And the same officer, who preferred not to reveal himself, stated, in press statements, that “the reports were about publications and private accounts that promote contraband, weapons, unlicensed medicines, extortion and piracy, in addition to promoting prostitution, and there is a significant percentage of negative comments in which there are complaints. Or insulting people, and others related to graphic content that is downward and unworthy of Iraqi traditions and customs.”[/size]
[size=45]During the past months, the Iraqi security authorities arrested more than 20 content creators on social media, on charges of publishing “low content,” and some of them were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging between 6 months and two years, amid criticism of the authorities’ failure to prosecute promoters of religious and racist hatred, especially those who are affiliated. Influential political and religious parties should only pursue what they consider immoral or contrary to customs and traditions.[/size]
[size=45]In these arrest campaigns, the Iraqi authorities rely on Article 403 of the Penal Code, which is related to publication issues, and stipulates imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine.[/size]
[size=45]The country lacks a law on electronic publishing issues, as the draft cybercrime and information law has been stalled since 2018, due to its widespread rejection by activists, jurists, and various liberal forces, because it contains clauses that were considered a restriction of freedoms, granting immunity to political parties and authorities, and preventing criticism of them, as well as It contains paragraphs described as loose, and could be exploited by the authorities and arrest bloggers and journalists. The proposed draft law included more than 20 articles under which several paragraphs were included, all of which stipulated varying penalties of up to thirty years in prison, and financial fines of up to one hundred million Iraqi dinars.[/size]
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