Four social media influencers have been sentenced to jail in Tunisia on the grounds of posting ‘immoral content’, local media reported on Wednesday.
According to The Business News, popular Instagram influencer, Lady Samara, who has one million followers on her page, was sentenced to three years and two months in prison on Tuesday.
TikToker Khoubaib received four years and six months, while Instagrammer Afifa was sentenced to a year and six months and her husband Ramzi to three years and six months.
On October 31, an Instagram influencer known as Choumoukh received a four-and-a-half-year jail term on similar charges.
A private radio station, Mosaique FM, also reported various sentences ranging from a year and six months to four and half years without mentioning those who were to be behind bars.
It said they were being prosecuted for “public indecency, dissemination of content contrary to good morals or adopting immoral positions, using inappropriate language or adopting inappropriate
behaviour that undermines moral and social values and risks negatively influencing the behaviour of young users of these platforms”.
The investigation was initiated following the justice ministry’s call on October 27 for prosecutors to “take necessary judicial measures and launch investigations against anyone producing, displaying or publishing data, images, and video clips with content that undermines moral values”.
The decision caused widespread debate, both online and in the media. Some social media users criticised the spread of offensive language and explicit content, while others viewed the move as restricting freedom.
The online magazine, Nawaat, known for its frequent criticism of the Tunisian government, argued that the arrests were happening in a climate “marked by repressive restrictions on freedoms.”
“Following the systematic dismantling of judicial power, the prosecution of opponents and journalists, and the repression of civil society, social media influencers — regardless of the quality of their content — are now in the regime’s crosshairs,” it said in an article.
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s opposition and civil society have called the move an “authoritarian drift” by President Kais Saied, who won the October 6 presidential election despite reports from election observers that there was a low turnout.