A French-Algerian influencer was sentenced to nine months of suspended prison time on Tuesday in Lyon for issuing death threats to opponents of the Algerian regime on social media. This decision comes at a time when digital smear campaigns are proliferating in Morocco, exploiting individuals residing both inside and outside the country on social media platforms, particularly YouTube, to unleash insults and slander, necessitating immediate action from the public prosecutor’s office to penalize the parties behind these campaigns.
The Lyon criminal court also handed down a sentence of 200 hours of community service to Sophia Ben Leman and barred her from using TikTok and Facebook for six months amidst renewed tensions between Paris and Algiers.
During her trial at the Lyon Criminal Court on March 18, the prosecutor had requested a one-year suspended prison sentence for the influencer after she condemned “dangerous and hate-filled statements that have no place in democracy,” according to the same source.
It is worth noting that Ben Leman was arrested in early January alongside three other Algerian influencers accused of spreading hate content and inciting violence.
