Who was Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahd, who was shot dead outside his Baghdad home? , world News

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Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahd was shot dead in a late-night attack outside his home in the Joyuna district of eastern Baghdad, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday. According to surveillance camera footage recovered from the incident site, the viral creator of short video making platform TikTok was shot by an unidentified assailant, who arrived on a motorcycle wearing dark clothes and a helmet, got off the motorcycle and shot a black man. Went away. SUV, and shot Om Fahadh sitting inside.

According to Al Jazeera, the Interior Ministry announced the formation of a team to investigate the circumstances surrounding the murder.

Who was Iraqi social media influencer Om Fahd?

With almost half a million followers on TikTok, Om Fahadh—real name: Gufran Sawadi—became famous for posting videos of himself dancing to pop music.

In February 2023, a court found that he had posted videos that contained “indecent speech that undermines decency and public morality” and sentenced him to six months in prison. Some of his videos have been viewed by more than one million people.

Investigations were launched against other online content creators, and five others were sentenced to up to two years in prison at the time. This occurred when in January 2023 the Iraqi Interior Ministry formed a committee to investigate “obscene and offensive material” posted online by influential people such as Om Fahd, with the stated goal of protecting “morality and family traditions” in society. Did.

Additionally, according to Al Jazeera, an online platform was set up where Iraqi users were urged to report any such content for removal. At the time, officials claimed that thousands of reports had been filed by the public, and that the public had embraced the platform.

Following the ministry’s crackdown, some online content creators were forced to apologize and remove parts of their work.

In a report released last year, the Geneva-based Euro-Med human rights monitor said it found no reason to convict Om Fahad and that his writings did not go beyond the limits of his freedom of expression, opinion and publication.