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Mimeta - Across the Arabic-speaking region, governments are rapidly tightening regulations on online content, influencer activity, and creative expression — Illustration made by Firefly (AI-generated)

Across the Arabic-speaking region, governments are rapidly tightening regulations on online content, influencer activity, and creative expression. While these frameworks are framed as measures to protect public morals, social integrity, and national identity, they are also reshaping the region’s digital landscape in ways that increasingly limit free expression. By 2025, this convergence of legal, moral, and cultural oversight has produced a series of sweeping reforms and crackdowns—most notably in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan—that have touched nearly every corner of the digital ecosystem

The Regulatory Acceleration
The trajectory of regulation in the region has sharply accelerated since 2022, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia leading the shift. The UAE was the first Gulf country to formalize influencer licensing, originally introduced in 2018 but significantly expanded with the Cabinet Decision of May 29 2025, which increased penalties and clarified dual licensing for influencers and brands

Saudi Arabia launched its own government-issued influencer license in October 2022 . The regulations reached a new stage in 2025, when the General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) implemented explicit bans on “flaunting luxury,” “immodesty,” and the filming of children or domestic workers without consent, as codified in the Saudi Media Rules 2025. Penalties include fines, content removal, or suspension of social-media accounts. These measures—summarized by Soul of Saudi (2025)—represent a fully codified national content code and a decisive turn toward visible state regulation of visual and social culture.

Elsewhere, Egypt’s intensified enforcement of its 2018 Cybercrime Law and public-morality provisions gave rise to a series of arrests of social-media figures and content creators between 2023 and 2025, marking one of the most extensive waves of prosecutions in the region

Kuwait and Bahrain followed by restating influencer-advertising rules during 2024–2025. Bahrain’s judiciary, in cooperation with its Interior Ministry Cybercrime Directorate, executed multiple arrests, including the widely reported case of a Kuwaiti influencer identified as “ZA,” who in August 2025 was sentenced to one year in prison and deportation over “indecent social-media videos”. Meanwhile, Jordan’s Cybercrime Law, ratified on August 12 2023, has been actively used to prosecute journalists, publishers, and citizens accused of “insulting public officials” or “disrupting national harmony,” leading to the imprisonment of media figures such as publisher Omar Al Zayood in 2025.

Domestic Reactions
Domestic reactions vary from open criticism and protest to quieter adaptation and reservation. In Egypt, public debate intensified as authorities arrested TikTok influencers under loosely defined “family values” charges. The detention of Mariam Ayman (Suzy El Ordonia) on August 2 2025, and Basant Mohamed later that same month for producing “indecent content,” became symbols of generational and gender conflict. Human Rights Watch and local NGOs condemned these arrests as arbitrary and discriminatory against female creators, while government-aligned commentators defended them as moral interventions.

In the UAE, where overt challenges are rare, creators voiced private frustration over complex licensing processes, heavy fines, and vague compliance requirements. Industry consultants note that the law’s narrative emphasizes professionalism and “responsible influence,” positioning regulation within a broader national-branding strategy rather than as censorship.

In Kuwait and Bahrain, enforcement has generated public debate about freedom and state authority. Kuwait’s licensing model—originally aimed at combating misleading marketing—has evolved into moral policing of tone and imagery. Bahrain’s ZA case provoked heated online discussion, with supporters of stricter decency laws clashing with critics who saw gender bias and disproportionate punishment. The July 2025 arrest of influencer JL for so-called “immoral content” drew significant commentary on the selective use of morality policing (News of Bahrain, 2 July 2025) . In Jordan, widespread criticism came from media groups and civil society as journalists and publishers faced arrest or fines for “offensive or inaccurate” posts under the 2023 Cybercrime Law. Calls for reform continue amid what press unions describe as systematic suppression of legitimate reporting.

Arrests and Enforcement Cases
The tightening legal frameworks have led to numerous prosecutions across the region. In Egypt, influencers Mariam Ayman (Suzy El Ordonia) and Basant Mohamed were among dozens arrested in 2025, charged with “indecency” and, in Ayman’s case, “money laundering” based on social-media income streams. Earlier defendants such as Haneen Hossam and Mawadda al-Adham faced similar sentences. The arrests of comedy creators Mohamed Abdelaty Taha and Mohamed Shaker were separately reported by The New Arab, 8 Aug 2025, though court documents remain limited.

Bahraini prosecutors stated that influencer ZA’s content violated public decency under Article 324 of the Bahraini Penal Code; the Minor Criminal Court ruling of 3 Aug 2025 confirmed prison and deportation penalties.

In the UAE, a combination of Cabinet Decision No. 20/2025 and expanded enforcement authority through the Media Regulatory Office has led to hundreds of license-compliance inspections and fines ranging from 5,000 to 2,000,000 AED. Repeat or foreign violators risk deportation or permanent bans.

Jordanian journalist Omar Al Zayood, detained in April 2025 and later convicted for “insulting public authorities,” remains a key example of how the cybercrime statute enables the criminalization of expression.

Decisive new stage in digital governance.
The regulatory tightening underway across the Arabic-speaking world represents a decisive new stage in digital governance. From GCAM’s 2025 Saudi media rules to Bahrain’s morality prosecutions and Egypt’s TikTok trials, states are asserting control under the banners of order and cultural authenticity. Yet these laws carry profound social consequences. Arrests, fines, and deportations reveal not simply administrative enforcement but a deliberate narrowing of expressive space across youth culture, art, and independent journalism.

The year 2025 will likely be remembered as a turning point—a moment when the promise of the digital economy across the Arab region collided head-on with the entrenched politics of social discipline and control.

2025 marks a turning point for digital governance in the Arab world. Governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and beyond are expanding regulations on social media, influencer activity, and online content—framed as moral and cultural protection. Arrests, fines, and licensing rules are increasingly shaping creative expression, journalism, and youth culture.

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