CAIRO (Reuters) – Five social media content creators have been arrested in Egypt after publishing a widely viewed comic sketch about a visit to an Egyptian jail, two lawyers said on Wednesday.
The video clip titled “The Visit” shows a woman visiting her fiance in prison. The two engage in banter with several other characters, including a prison guard, who appear at the detention centre.
The three-minute video was published on Jan. 13 and has been viewed more than 7 million times on Facebook.
Five people who appeared in the video were arrested by National Security agents last week before being transferred to the prosecution and ordered detained for 15 days pending investigations, said Mokhtar Mounir, a lawyer for two of those arrested.
They include Mohamed Hossam, who has more than one million followers on Facebook, and Basma Hegazy, who has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok.
The five face charges such as “joining a terrorist group, funding terrorism, publishing false news and utilising social media accounts to commit acts of terrorism”, said Mounir.
He said they were detained over the video, but that he did not know what aspects of it had triggered their arrest.
The charges they face are commonly used against people deemed to be undermining the state or its security.
Judicial officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Other cases have been brought against content creators and social media influencers in Egypt in recent years, including over videos that touch on sensitive subjects like living conditions or are held to violate conservative social values.
Authorities arrested a group of TikTok influencers last April after they published a parody song about price increases. The influencers were later released, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent rights group.
(Reporting by Farah Saafan; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Raissa Kasolowsky)
