Cairo, 21 Feb. Government officials across the Middle East and North Africa region have ensnared LGBT people on social media and dating apps, subjecting them to online extortion, online harassment and unwanted disclosure of their sexual identity to bring legal action against them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.
In a 135-page report, titled “All That Terror for a Photo,” the organization examined the use of digital tools by security forces and its consequences, including arbitrary arrests and torture, in five countries: l Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia.
“Authorities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia have incorporated technology into their policing efforts against LGBT people,” Rasha Younes, senior HRW researcher on LGBT rights, said in a statement.
“While digital platforms have enabled LGBT people to express themselves and amplify their voices, they have also become tools of state repression,” he added.
The NGO has documented 45 cases of arbitrary detention of 40 LGBT people in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia.
In all cases of detention, security forces searched people’s phones, either by force or under threat of violence, to collect and even create personal digital information to enable their subsequent prosecution, the organization revealed. .
By examining the court records of 23 cases of LGBT people prosecuted on the basis of digital evidence under laws criminalizing same-sex behavior, “incitement to debauchery”, “debauchery”, “prostitution” and cybercrime in Egypt , in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia, HRW found that most defendants were acquitted on appeal.
In at least five cases, people were found guilty and sentenced to between one and three years in prison, while another 22 people were never charged but remained in pre-trial detention.
Likewise, the NGO documented 20 cases of online deception in the Grindr and Facebook apps by security forces, who “created fake profiles to pose as LGBT people, in Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. ; and 17 cases of online extortion by individuals on Grindr, Instagram and Facebook in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, including by organized gangs in Egypt and armed groups in Iraq”.
“Online abuse against LGBT people has offline consequences that affect their lives and can harm their livelihoods, mental health and safety,” Younes said.
He called on authorities in the Middle East and North Africa region to stop “targeting LGBT people, online and offline”, and urged social media companies to “mitigate the harmful effects of targeted digital platform to better protect LGBT people online,” he concluded. ECE
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