A Senegalese court on Thursday sentenced three TikTok influencers to prison and fined two of them for insulting the president, Bassirou Faye, a decision critics condemned as an attack on free speech in the West African nation.
The three men worked for online media platform Feenal Digital, which produces political content.
Some observers say the platform is sympathetic to former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and his PASTEF party, although it describes its mission on Facebook as promoting government and private-sector activities.
The ruling comes amid political tensions following Sonko’s split with his former ally, President Bassirou Faye, who launched his own political party last month.
According to their lawyer, who announced the ruling in a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, Mandoumbe Diop, known as Lamignou Darou, received a three-month prison sentence without suspension.
With more than 500,000 TikTok followers, he is the most prominent of the three, and his videos regularly attract tens of thousands of views.
Magueye Diaw, known as Oustaz Thiep, and Moustapha Ndiaye, known as Ndiaye Touba, were each sentenced to two months in prison, according to Feenal Digital.
Diaw and Ndiaye were also fined 500,000 CFA francs (about $800), their lawyer, Abdy Nar Ndiaye, said.
Ndiaye argued that the TikTok videos were intended as comedy and did not warrant criminal prosecution.