Iraqi Minister of Communications Hayam Al-Yasiri announced today, Monday, that a request has been submitted to the Council of Ministers to ban the TikTok application. Al-Yasiri indicated that Iraq has exited the list of countries with the highest visits and views of pornographic websites, according to the Iraqi News Agency. The minister revealed in a press conference that the request to the Council of Ministers emphasizes the need for cooperation from the representatives of the people in Parliament to block such applications.
In the press conference, Al-Yasiri stated that "the number of visits to pornographic websites in January of last year was over half a billion views," noting that "the number of visits to those websites in February of this year dropped to 89 million visits."
On March 14 of this year, the Federal Supreme Court issued a decision regarding the ban on websites, internet networks, and social media applications that involve the production and publication of immoral and indecent clips, debased content that offends modesty, and any infringement upon the divine self and the sanctity of sacred books, as well as insults to prophets, messengers, and religious symbols, insults to religions and sects, and the promotion and dissemination of vice, immorality, prostitution, sexual deviancy, and the assault on others and defamation against them. This decision raised questions about whether specific social media applications or accounts would follow to be banned.
According to the digital media center in Iraq, reported by Al-Sumaria, the number of TikTok users in Iraq rose to 31.95 million this year, up from 23.88 million users last year, surpassing all other social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in a country with a population of 43.5 million.
