Senegal court jails three TikTok influencers for insulting the president

A Senegalese court has handed down prison sentences and fines to three TikTok influencers for allegedly insulting the country's president. The decision has been criticized as an attack on free speech in the West African nation. The men, who work for Feenal Digital, an online communications channel, are said to have content that some perceive as favoring Senegal’s former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko.

Sonko recently parted ways with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who established his own political party. Feenal Digital's purpose, as described on Facebook, is to promote government and private-sector ventures. Among the three influencers, Mandoumbe Diop, also known as Lamignou Darou, received the harshest penalty, a three-month prison term without suspension.

He appears to be the most influential, with over half a million followers on his TikTok channel, where his videos typically garner tens of thousands of views. Magueye Diaw, known as Oustaz Thiep, and Moustapha Ndiaye, referred to as Ndiaye Touba, were each given two months' imprisonment without parole. Their lawyer, Abdy Nar Ndiaye, described their TikTok posts as humorous and ineffective for criminal prosecution, imposing fines of 500,000 CFA ($800) on each of them. However, neither Feenal Digital nor a government spokesperson commented on the matter.