Senegal Court Jails 3 TikTok Influencers For Insulting President

A court in Senegal has sentenced three TikTok influencers to prison and imposed fines on two of them for allegedly insulting President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a decision that has sparked criticism from free speech advocates.

According to Reuters, the three men are affiliated with Feenal Digital, an online communications platform that produces content some observers say is sympathetic to former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and his PASTEF political movement.

The case came amid growing political tensions following Sonko’s recent split from President Faye, his former ally, who launched a new political party last month.

Feenal Digital describes itself on Facebook as a platform dedicated to promoting government and private-sector activities.

The court sentenced Mandoumbe Diop, popularly known as Lamignou Darou, to three months in prison without suspension. Diop is the most prominent of the three, with more than 500,000 followers on TikTok, where his videos regularly attract tens of thousands of views.

The two other influencers, Magueye Diaw (Oustaz Thiep) and Moustapha Ndiaye (Ndiaye Touba), were each handed two-month prison terms without parole, according to a statement posted by Feenal Digital on Facebook.

Their lawyer, Abdy Nar Ndiaye, defended the content that led to the prosecution, describing the TikTok posts as “comical” and arguing that they “did not merit criminal prosecution.”

He added that Diaw and Ndiaye were also ordered to pay 500,000 CFA francs (about $800) each in fines.

The ruling has intensified debate over freedom of expression in Senegal, with critics warning that criminal sanctions against social media creators could have a chilling effect on online speech in one of West Africa’s most closely watched democracies.