Read a text description of this video
Tina
I’m a transgender woman and was sentenced to three years in prison in Egypt.
Rania Amdouni
I was sentenced to six months in prison, of which I was detained for 19 days [in Tunisia].
Mohamad al-Bokari
I was arrested in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to 10 months in prison and a 2600USD fine, along with a decision to deport me back to Yemen where my life was in danger.
Tina, Rania Amdouni, Mohamad al-Bokari
I'm a victim of digital targeting in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Voiceover
State actors across the Middle East and North Africa region are targeting LGBT people based on their online activity on social media.
Text on screen
Mohamad al-Bokari
LGBT Rights Activist, Blogger
Yemen
Stockholm, Sweden
Mohamad al-Bokari
I used to share my daily journals on social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter. I posted a live broadcast on Facebook where I spoke about LGBT rights. I was met with online hostility, and I became the target of a smear campaign where I was outed as gay which led to my arrest in Saudi Arabia.
I'd find thousands of comments, including swearing, demeaning language, and threats. I still receive death threats online to this day. I used to report them to social media companies, but the platforms didn’t respond.
Voiceover
Security forces in the MENA region use digital targeting tactics to entrap LGBT people, harass them online, and expose their private information and identities without their consent.
This has led to far-reaching offline consequences, including arbitrary arrests and prosecutions based on digital “evidence,” ill-treatment in detention, as well as crackdowns on LGBT rights activism.
Text on screen
Rania Amdouni
LGBTQ Rights Activist, Actress
Tunisia
Paris, France
Rania Amdouni
What happened in January 2021, some of the [Tunisian] former parliamentarians published my photos and changed the public opinion against me, and also targeted many other activists through [social media] posts that incited violence and discrimination.
The majority of the threats were acts of bullying on the way I looked and my gender identity.
I spent 3 or 4 months away from my house, in fear of online threats and the real ones in the streets and where I lived.
I went to the police station to file a complaint because I was accosted in the street by a police officer with verbal harassment. I told him I will complain to the police, and he said go ahead. The case soon changed against me. I was the victim and became the perpetrator.
The series of attacks that lasted for two years affected my mental health to a great extent. I attempted suicide 3 times in 2 years, one of which put me in a coma for 48 hours. I had to leave Tunisia.
Voiceover
Social media platforms should proactively remove abusive content that violates platform standards on harassment, hate speech, and incitement to violence, which could put people at risk.
Text on screen
Tina
Performer, Escort
Cyprus
Ayia Napa, Cyprus
Tina
I’m from Cyprus. On January 15, 2020, I got arrested outside my hotel in Egypt when my client told the police that I’m an escort and showed him my advertising on the internet. The policemen took screenshots of personal messages and also photos from my phone and make it evidence against to me in court.
Under the law against homosexuality [debauchery], I was sentenced not for being an escort, but just [based on] five photos on the internet.
My experience in Egypt, being arrested was horrible. They [the police] make me feel like I’m not human being. The first two weeks were the worst because no one came to my room [cell] from my embassy or a lawyer. I was tortured by police, and they raped me 22 times. I stayed with them [the policemen for] like 290 days. They didn't give me food or water, so a lot of times I ate from the garbage. My health was very bad because I lost a lot of weight. I couldn't walk. I couldn't even go to toilet. A lot of times I cried, and they don’t have sympathy. They don’t care.
Voiceover
Security forces should be held accountable for targeting LGBT people, online and offline.
Authorities’ use of digital targeting tactics to curtail free expression and persecute LGBT people should stop.
Rania Amdouni
I miss my lover, and my girlfriends that were with me constantly, through thick and thin. I miss them all so much.
Tina
Today, I like to move on. Every time when I see my face in the mirror, I say OK, you are good. I like you, go out and have fun.
Mohamad al-Bokari
I am still seeing a therapist to this day because of what I had been through. I feel very safe now in Sweden. The people here are very peaceful. I feel safe because now I have my rights. I am still an activist on social media and will continue to be so until I can change people online and in reality. Perhaps they will be able to accept those that are different.
(Beirut) – Government officials across the Middle East and North Africa region are targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people based on their online activity on social media, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Security forces have entrapped LGBT people on social media and dating applications, subjected them to online extortion, online harassment, and outing, and relied on illegitimately obtained digital photos, chats, and similar information in prosecutions, in violation of the right to privacy and other human rights.
The 135-page report, “‘All This Terror Because of a Photo’: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences for LGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa,” examines the use of digital targeting by security forces and its far-reaching offline consequences – including arbitrary detention and torture – in five countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. The findings show how security forces employ digital targeting to gather and create evidence to support prosecutions.
“The authorities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia have integrated technology into their policing of LGBT people,” said Rasha Younes, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “While digital platforms have enabled LGBT people to express themselves and amplify their voices, they have also become tools for state-sponsored repression.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 90 LGBT people affected by digital targeting and 30 experts, including lawyers and digital rights professionals. Human Rights Watch also reviewed online evidence of targeting against LGBT people, including videos, images, and digital threats. The research had support from members of the Coalition for Digital and LGBT Rights: in Egypt, Masaar and an LGBT rights organization in Cairo whose name is withheld for security reasons; in Iraq, IraQueer and the Iraqi Network for Social Media (INSM); in Jordan, Rainbow Street and the Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA); in Lebanon, Helem and Social Media Exchange (SMEX); and in Tunisia, Damj Association.
Human Rights Watch documented 45 cases of arbitrary arrest involving 40 LGBT people targeted online in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. In every instance of arrest, security forces searched people’s phones, by force or under threat of violence, to collect – or even create – personal digital information to enable their prosecution, Human Rights Watch found.
In reviewing judicial files for 23 cases of LGBT people prosecuted based on digital evidence under laws criminalizing same-sex conduct, “inciting debauchery,” “debauchery,” “prostitution,” and cybercrime laws in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, Human Rights Watch found that most of those prosecuted were acquitted upon appeal. In five cases, people were convicted and sentenced to one to three years in prison. Twenty-two people were never charged but were held in pretrial detention, in one case for 52 days at a police station in Lebanon.
LGBT people who were detained reported facing numerous due process violations, including officials confiscating their phones, denying them access to a lawyer, and forcing them to sign coerced confessions. LGBT detainees reported being denied food and water, family and legal representation, and medical services as well as verbal, physical, and sexual assault. Some were placed in solitary confinement. Transgender women detainees were routinely held in men’s cells, where they faced sexual assault and other ill-treatment. In one case, a transgender woman held in a police station in Egypt said she experienced repeated sexual assault for 13 months.
Human Rights Watch documented 20 cases of online entrapment on Grindr and Facebook by security forces, who created fake profiles to impersonate LGBT people, in Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan; and 17 cases of online extortion by private individuals on Grindr, Instagram, and Facebook in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, including by organized gangs in Egypt and armed groups in Iraq. The six people who reported the extortion to the authorities were themselves arrested.
Human Rights Watch documented 26 cases of online harassment, including doxxing and outing, on Facebook and Instagram in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. As a result, LGBT people reported losing their jobs, suffering family violence, being forced to change their residence and phone numbers, and deleting their social media accounts, fleeing the country, and suffering severe mental health consequences. Most reported the abuse to the relevant digital platform, but none removed the content.
The targeting of LGBT people online is enabled by their precarious legal status, Human Rights Watch said. In the absence of protection by laws or sufficient digital platform regulations, both security forces and private individuals have been able to target them with impunity.
Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, social media companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, including the rights to nondiscrimination, privacy, and freedom of expression. Digital platforms, such as Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and Grindr, are not doing enough to protect users vulnerable to digital targeting, Human Rights Watch said.
Digital platforms should invest in content moderation, particularly in Arabic, by quickly removing abusive content as well as content that could put users at risk. Platforms should conduct human rights due diligence that includes identifying, preventing, ceasing, mitigating, remediating, and accounting for potential and actual adverse impacts of digital targeting on human rights.
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia each have obligations under international and regional human rights law to address violations against LGBT people. The five governments should respect and protect the rights of LGBT people instead of criminalizing their expression and targeting them online, Human Rights Watch said. They should introduce and enforce laws protecting people against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, including online.
“Online abuses against LGBT people have offline consequences that reverberate throughout their lives and can be detrimental to their livelihood, mental health, and safety,” Younes said. “Authorities across the MENA region should stop targeting LGBT people, online and offline, and social media companies should mitigate the adverse impacts of digital targeting by better protecting LGBT people online.”
