In an increasingly connected world, digital platforms offer a lifeline for many, enabling connection, expression, and advocacy. However, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals across the middle east and north africa (MENA) region, these very platforms have become weaponized tools of surveillance, harassment, and persecution.
A comprehensive report by human rights watch (HRW) sheds light on the grave risks faced by LGBT people, detailing a chilling array of digital targeting tactics employed by both state actors and private individuals, leading to arbitrary arrests, torture, and profound psychological distress.
The precarious digital existence of LGBT individuals in the MENA region
The internet penetration in the middle east, exceeding the global average, provides a vital space for LGBT communities to connect, share experiences, and organize in societies where they often face severe social stigma and legal penalties.
Yet, this digital interconnectedness also presents significant vulnerabilities. In countries like Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, security forces have integrated technology into their policing methods, merging traditional tactics with sophisticated digital targeting.
This creates a dangerous environment where online interactions can quickly translate into devastating offline consequences.
The HRW investigation, conducted between February 2021 and January 2023, meticulously documented 90 cases of online targeting affecting LGBT individuals, alongside interviews with 30 activists, lawyers, and experts.
This extensive research revealed alarming trends in how digital spaces are manipulated to suppress free expression and persecute those perceived as different. The findings illustrate a pattern where technology, meant to empower, is instead used to monitor, control, and inflict harm on a vulnerable population.
Tactics of digital targeting: a dangerous arsenal
The report identifies several key tactics used to target LGBT individuals online, transforming social media and dating applications into sites of potential violence and state infiltration:
- Entrapment on social media and dating applications: Security forces frequently create fake profiles on platforms like grindr and facebook to lure LGBT individuals into compromising situations.
These fabricated interactions are then used as "evidence" for arrest and prosecution, often leading to arbitrary detention and severe mistreatment.
- Online extortion: Private individuals, and sometimes even organized gangs or armed groups, trick LGBT people on dating apps and social media, then threaten to out them to authorities or family, or publicly expose them, unless a sum of money is paid.
Victims often face repeated demands, enduring ongoing psychological and financial strain.
- Online harassment and outing (doxxing): Individuals are subjected to a torrent of hateful comments, demeaning language, and death threats.
In some cases, personally identifiable information is published without consent, exposing them to real-world harassment, abuse, and physical danger, forcing many to change their lives dramatically.
- Reliance on private digital information in prosecutions: Even without direct entrapment, security forces confiscate phones, search devices, and use selfies, chats, or the mere presence of same-sex dating apps as justification for arrest and prosecution.
Disturbingly, evidence is often fabricated when none exists, solidifying baseless charges against innocent individuals.
These methods are not isolated incidents but represent a coordinated strategy by some state actors and a widespread pattern of abuse by private individuals, enabled by legal precarity and a lack of protective measures.
Personal stories of peril and persecution
The human cost of these digital targeting tactics is immense, as demonstrated through harrowing personal accounts documented by human rights watch.
These stories reveal the brutal reality faced by LGBT individuals, ranging from physical violence to profound psychological trauma.
Arbitrary arrests and fabricated evidence
In Egypt, maamoun, a 28-year-old gay man, suspected police officers used grindr to entrap him.
After agreeing to meet someone from the app, he was cornered by five men in civilian clothes, handcuffed, and taken to a police station. There, he endured verbal abuse, was denied a lawyer or food, and forced to sign a police report he couldn't read. Despite claiming his phone was hacked, a prosecutor believed the fabricated evidence, leading to 10 days in pretrial detention before his eventual release.
His case highlights the systemic disregard for due process.
Similarly, ayman, a 23-year-old gay man, was entrapped on grindr while at a cairo café with friends. They were arrested, denied medical care despite a covid-19 diagnosis, and held in appalling conditions for a month before being acquitted on appeal.
These cases illustrate a disturbing pattern: security forces often pressure individuals to agree to meetings under false pretenses, using broadly defined cybercrime laws to secure convictions based on dubious digital "evidence."
Amr, a 25-year-old gay man from egypt, experienced another alarming tactic.
When police found no "incriminating" dating apps on his phone, they downloaded grindr themselves, fabricated chats, and uploaded them to his device to build a case. He was denied a lawyer, endured severe beatings, and was held for weeks, demonstrating the lengths authorities go to criminalize and persecute.
Such fabrication of evidence undermines the very foundation of justice.
Torture and sexual assault in detention
The consequences of arrest extend far beyond detention, often including horrific physical and sexual violence. One Egyptian man recounted being tortured and raped 22 times by police during his two-week detention, denied food and water, and left in such a state that he struggled to walk or attend to basic needs.
This horrific testimony underscores the extreme violence and dehumanization faced by LGBT detainees. An Egyptian transgender girl, 19, was subjected to a forced anal exam, a widely condemned practice that constitutes sexual assault and torture, violating international human rights laws.
Amar, a 22-year-old transgender woman from jordan, was entrapped by police officers in amman.
While detained, one officer forced her to undress in a bathroom, raped her, and threatened her into silence. Her ordeal, which included forced phone unlocking and fabrication of digital evidence, highlights the vulnerability of transgender individuals to targeted violence and sexual abuse by state actors.
These experiences inflict deep and lasting trauma.
Outing, threats, and forced displacement
The threat of outing is a constant shadow, forcing many LGBT individuals into impossible situations. One individual shared how online hostility and a smear campaign led to them being outed as gay, resulting in arrest in saudi arabia and ongoing death threats.
In morocco, a covid-19 era outing campaign led a 19-year-old gay university student to be kicked out of his home by his brother, losing his familial support system due to online exposure.
Nour, a 23-year-old gay man from egypt, was entrapped and extorted by a group of men he met online.
After agreeing to meet, he was taken to an apartment, beaten, and threatened with outing to his family unless he paid a substantial sum. This illustrates the dual threat of private individuals orchestrating extortion and the pervasive fear of public exposure in socially conservative environments, where a public outing can destroy lives.
In Iraq, targeted LGBT people live in constant fear, often forced to change residences, delete social media accounts, and flee the country to escape armed groups.
The experience of zoran, a 26-year-old gay man from iraq, meeting a man on grindr only to be threatened with arrest and sexually assaulted by a police officer, exemplifies the blend of digital targeting and physical violence that forces many to seek refuge elsewhere.
The chilling effect: self-censorship and mental health crisis
The pervasive digital targeting has a profound "chilling effect" on LGBT expression and activism.
All 90 LGBT individuals interviewed by HRW reported practicing self-censorship online, altering how they use platforms and what they share. This includes refraining from using certain digital platforms or changing their online behavior to avoid detection and persecution. Those unable or unwilling to hide their identities, or whose identities are revealed without consent, face immediate and severe consequences, from harassment to arbitrary arrest.
Beyond the immediate physical dangers, the long-term mental health impacts are devastating.
Victims reported enduring isolation, constant fear, post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
Many deleted their social media accounts, further exacerbating feelings of isolation and cutting them off from vital support networks. The profound trauma often requires ongoing therapeutic support, as one survivor in sweden attested, still seeing a therapist years after experiencing torture and rape during detention in egypt.
The constant threat creates a climate of fear that severely impacts mental well-being and inhibits community building.
Systemic failures: governments and digital platforms
The HRW report points to critical failures on two fronts: governments in the region and the digital platforms themselves, both of which contribute to the ongoing abuses against LGBT individuals.
Government culpability and legal precarity
Many MENA countries lack legislation protecting LGBT people from discrimination and criminalize same-sex relations, creating a legal void that enables abuse with impunity.
The report documented 45 cases of arbitrary arrest involving 40 LGBT people across Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, often with widespread due process violations. In Egypt alone, 29 arrests and prosecutions were documented, including against foreigners, strongly suggesting a coordinated government policy to persecute LGBT individuals based on their presumed or actual sexual orientation or gender identity.
Moreover, governments often fail to hold private actors accountable for digital targeting.
In six cases where extortion victims reported the crime to authorities, the victims themselves were subsequently arrested, highlighting a deeply flawed justice system that penalizes the vulnerable instead of protecting them. This impunity for perpetrators perpetuates a cycle of abuse and fear.
Digital platforms' responsibility and shortcomings
Digital platforms like meta (facebook, instagram), grindr, and twitter, which have a responsibility to prevent their services from becoming tools of state repression, are largely failing to protect vulnerable users.
Despite numerous reports of abusive content violating guidelines on harassment, hate speech, and incitement to violence, platforms consistently fail to remove such content, claiming it doesn't violate their standards.
This inaction leaves LGBT individuals exposed and unprotected, undermining their safety and freedom of expression.
The report emphasizes that platforms must invest significantly in content moderation, especially in arabic, proactively removing harmful content.
They need to center the experiences of vulnerable users, particularly LGBT people in the MENA region, in their policy and product design, engaging meaningfully with LGBT rights organizations. This includes soliciting perspectives at all phases of development, providing context-specific information in arabic about user rights, and designing security features that acknowledge the realities of those at high risk.
Recommendations for a safer digital future
To address these systemic abuses, human rights watch puts forth clear recommendations for both governments and digital platforms, urging them to take immediate and decisive action to protect LGBT individuals in the MENA region:
For governments:
- Respect and protect rights: Governments must cease criminalizing LGBT expression and online targeting.
They should instead uphold the universal human rights of all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Implement anti-discrimination legislation: Introduce and implement robust legislation protecting against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, both online and offline, ensuring legal recourse for victims of abuse.
- End harassment and arbitrary arrests: Security forces must stop harassing and arresting LGBT people and instead ensure their protection from violence and discrimination, transforming their role from persecutors to protectors.
- Cease fabrication of evidence: Authorities must stop improperly gathering or fabricating private digital information for prosecutions, upholding principles of due process and legal integrity.
- Hold perpetrators accountable: Ensure that all perpetrators of digital targeting—whether state actors or private individuals—are held responsible for their crimes, not the LGBT victims themselves, fostering an environment of accountability and justice.
For digital platforms:
- Invest in robust content moderation: Proactively and quickly remove abusive content that violates guidelines on hate speech and incitement to violence, particularly in all arabic dialects, recognizing the linguistic nuances of harmful content.
- Center vulnerable users: Integrate the online experiences of LGBT people in the MENA region into policy and product design, engaging meaningfully with LGBT rights organizations in the region.
Their perspectives should inform all stages of development, from design to enforcement.
- Provide context-specific information: Offer clear, arabic-language information to LGBT users about their rights and applicable laws, empowering them with knowledge to navigate risks and seek help.
- Enhance digital security: Design security features that consider the realities of high-risk users, preventing the weaponization of digital information and ensuring user data is secure from state surveillance and private abuse.
- Hire diverse staff: Employ representative and diverse staff from the region who are proficient in all arabic dialects and trained on the human rights implications of digital targeting against vulnerable groups.
Conclusion
The digital realm, intended as a space for connection and empowerment, has become a dangerous frontier for LGBT individuals in the middle east and north africa.
The detailed accounts and systemic findings in the human rights watch report paint a stark picture of state-sponsored persecution and the failures of digital platforms to safeguard their users. Protecting LGBT rights online is not merely a technical challenge but a fundamental human rights imperative, requiring concerted action from governments to uphold basic freedoms and from technology companies to ensure their platforms are truly safe for everyone.
Only through a collaborative and determined effort can the digital space be transformed from a battleground into a genuine haven for LGBT individuals in the region.
Key terms and definitions
- Bisexual: Refers to a person sexually and romantically attracted to both men and women.
- Content moderation: The process of ensuring user-generated content adheres to platform guidelines, involving screening and removal of inappropriate material like violence, hate speech, or nudity.
- Digital evidence: Data created, stored, or communicated digitally, later used in legal proceedings.
- Digital targeting: Using digital media to attack an individual or group.
In this report, it includes entrapment, online extortion, harassment, outing, and relying on digital information in prosecutions.
- Doxxing: Publishing personally identifiable information about an individual without consent, often to expose them to offline harassment and danger.
- Entrapment: Tricking someone into committing a crime under specific laws to secure their prosecution.
- Extortion: Obtaining something, usually money, through coercion, force, or threats.
- Gay: Refers to a man whose primary sexual and romantic attraction is toward other men.
- Homosexual: A person whose primary sexual and romantic attractions are toward people of the same sex.
- LGBT: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.
- Lesbian: Refers to a woman whose primary sexual and romantic attraction is toward other women.
- Transgender: Describes individuals whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.