Iraq’s judiciary is issuing arrest warrants and convicting social media stars over allegedly inappropriate content. Reactions to these measures have been divided. Some Iraqis support the moves, feeling that certain videos and social media posts are indecent and offensive. But others have raised concerns over the legality of the cases and questioned whether this could be the beginning of a wider crackdown on freedoms and government opponents.

The current campaign of arrests and prosecutions against social media influencers follows the Ministry of Interior’s January launch of a digital platform called ‘Ballegh’, meaning “report” in Arabic. Through it, ordinary citizens can anonymously report any social media content that in their view “offends public decency and carries negative messages.”

Amwaj.media spoke to Mohammad, a pseudonym for a famous Iraqi who posts comedy videos on the video sharing app TikTok. He currently faces an arrest warrant after the authorities decided that...