Court sentences TikTok influencers to 10 and 6 years in prison on human trafficking charges

The Cairo Criminal Court on Sunday sentenced TikTok and Likee content creator Haneen Hossam to 10 years in prison and content creator Mowada al-Adham and three other employees of Likee and parent tech company Bigo Technology, to six years in prison on human trafficking charges. The court also fined the five defendants LE200,000 each.

Adham was held in remand detention until Sunday’s sentence, while Hossam was released on bail in an earlier case in February. In April, however, Hossam was ordered held in remand detention, although authorities have been unable to locate her and she was tried in absentia. A lawyer who has acted on behalf of Adham, Hany Sameh, told Mada Masr that the court ordered Hossam held in remand after Adham requested that the judge grant her release, “like Hossam.”

The harsh sentences are the latest development in an ordeal that began in early 2020, when both Hossam and Adham were first detained and tried on charges of “violating family values,” facing prison time as well as a fine. The case came as part of a crackdown launched in 2020 that targeted content creators on TikTok on morality charges, many of which fell under a 2018 cybercrime law that gives judicial bodies wide-reaching powers to convict social media users on various grounds. These included the offense of “infringing on Egyptian family values,” a charge described as ambiguous and misogynistic by critics who launched a social media campaign for the women to be released. Other charges have included “promoting debauchery” and “promoting prostitution.”

In July, the Cairo Economic Court handed down prison sentences for the two women and the three Likee employees: Mohamed Abdel Hamid, a Middle East director for live streaming agencies at Likee, Mohamed Alaa Eddin, coordinator and translator for Bigo Technology, and Ahmed Salah Attiya. The ruling against Hossam was overturned by an appeals court in January, though Adham was convicted and fined LE300,000. Yet, as the earlier case concluded, the Public Prosecution moved to file the new trafficking charges against the defendants. 

During the first trial against the two women, a particular video that Hossam posted on her Instagram account about a new opportunity on Likee became the central focus of the prosecution’s case against her. 

In the video, Hossam discusses the difficulties people may have suffered as a consequence of the lockdown — from losing a job to feelings of boredom and listlessness. She goes on to announce the launch of a Likee-affiliated agency she named Haram Masr (Pyramid of Egypt) which invites young women aged 18 and above to apply for work through her agency. For what she claims would be an easy income of between $36 and $3,000, they would be required to join the app and stream for at least 30 hours per month, no more than three hours a day. While streaming, they are to engage users and establish connections with the audience. The more viewers they get, the more money they can earn. In the video, Hossam forbids potential streamers from wearing revealing clothing or relying on that as a tactic to attract followers. Hossam’s venture came in response to an effort by Likee to expand their live streaming base by contracting virtual agencies that would in turn recruit content creators to engage a youth audience. The owner of the agency gets 20 percent of any earnings by the content creators.

At the time, the video was met with an uproar on local talk shows, with TV hosts noting that Hossam had exclusively called on young women to sign up.