Much ado about online morality

Inside: the data processor problem and other infosec updates from across Africa

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CybAfrique Media
August 22, 2026

CybAfriqué is a space for news and analysis on cyber, data, and information security on the African continent.

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Much ado about online morality

This week, Rwandan police announced plans to monitor TikTok accounts for public indecency, while a Moroccan court sentenced influencer Soukaina Glamour to 10 months in prison for public indecency over a revealing video she posted on TikTok. 

Moral policing of TikTok content is not new, especially among conservative and religious authorities on the continent. Northern Nigeria has recorded at least half a dozen such cases since 2023. Kano State's Hisbah Board placed six of the region's most-followed TikTokers on a wanted list over "vulgar content" 

A Kano court sentenced TikToker Ashiru Idris, known as Maiwushirya, to two weeks in a correctional facility for indecent videos, and a magistrate later ordered Hisbah to arrange his marriage to co-star Basira Yar Guda within 60 days as a remedy. Just this month, Hisbah arrested TikToker Namadina Tudunwada for a video in which he compared the cost of fornication with the cost of marriage. 

Egypt, which runs the continent's most sustained morality dragnet, arrested or prosecuted at least 29 online creators between late July and late August 2025 alone, a figure independent outlet Mada Masr pushed to 37 once it added its own count. Most were charged under the country's Cybercrime Law with "violating public morals" or "undermining family values."

These arrests contravene the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and non-discrimination, and rest on weak legal grounds. In 2021, an Egyptian appeal court ruled against sentencing Mawada al-Adham, along with three others who had been sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a $18,000 fine for promoting a platform where women could earn money by broadcasting videos. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemned the case as targeting women for arbitrary "morality" offences.

It is not clear how these offences are adjudicated. For example, if an Egyptian commits this crime outside the country, are they still liable to be arrested? What if it is a foreigner in the country? What if it is a foreigner outside the country whose content reaches the country?

Some experts have argued that platforms need to do more to protect creators’ freedoms and, where relevant, provide clear guidelines on how alleged violations are determined. If public indecency is treated as a criminal offence, platforms should be considered complicit in aiding and abetting the said crime, too.

Who will register the data processor? 

Uganda revealed during the week that over 35,000 companies and individuals were processing data but were unregistered with the Data Protection Commission. We have talked about the complexity of data commissions before, here.

The numbers, shared by PDPO Director Baker Birikujja at an ISACA Kampala Chapter meeting, say that out of an estimated 50,000 entities in Uganda required by law to register as data controllers or processors, only 14,697 have done so. Roughly 70 per cent of the country's data economy operates outside any regulatory record.

Failure to register is an offence under Regulation 15(1) of Uganda's Data Protection Regulations, but the penalty on conviction tops out at UGX 120,000, about $31, or three months in prison. Compare that to the fine for unlawfully disclosing personal data, which can run to UGX 4.8 million and ten years in prison. It seems backwards if the point of registration is to prevent misuse before it happens.

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