Members of the LGBTQ+ community in Ethiopia are facing a surge of online harassment and physical attacks, attributing much of it to the social media platform TikTok. They claim that TikTok is failing to remove posts that call for violence against homosexual and transgender individuals, including calls for them to be whipped, stabbed, and killed. The LGBTQ+ support group, House of Guramayle, has stated that some TikTok users are outing Ethiopians by sharing their personal information and profiles on the popular social media platform.
Ethiopia, with a population of nearly 120 million divided between Christianity and Islam, is largely conservative, and LGBTQ+ individuals have long faced abuse. However, activists say that the hostility has reached new heights. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to 15 years in prison in Ethiopia.
Local LGBTQ+ individuals have expressed concern over the use of TikTok to incite violence against them. Bahiru Shewaye, co-founder of House of Guramayle, claimed that several videos have been reported to TikTok, but no action has been taken so far. The Associated Press reviewed videos on TikTok that clearly violated the platform’s community guidelines by promoting violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In one video, an evangelical Christian pastor called for gay individuals to be publicly whipped after being stripped naked. Another user called for gay men to be stabbed in the buttocks, while a third individual made a stomping gesture with their foot and stated, We should find them and kill them. These videos are in Amharic, Ethiopia’s primary language.
The motive behind these videos remains unclear, but it is believed that Uganda’s recent anti-LGBTQ+ law, which imposes the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality, may have played a role. LGBTQ+ Ethiopians have expressed a sense of insecurity due to the increase in abusive content, prompting several to flee the country. One nonbinary person stated that they are currently in Kenya after being attacked by a group of men in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
A student in Addis Ababa shared that they have been outed twice on TikTok. Following an outing video, they were severely beaten by classmates at a restaurant, resulting in a fractured cheek. The second outing video received over 275,000 views and included a comment saying, Let’s kill them, give us their address.
In addition to the online abuse, LGBTQ+ individuals in Ethiopia have accused public institutions of aggravating discrimination. Recently, Addis Ababa’s tourism bureau issued a statement on Facebook instructing hotels not to allow homosexual activities on their premises and warning of actions that would be taken if such activities occurred. The city’s police department subsequently established a hotline for reporting illegal activities deviating from the law and social values.
According to Bahiru, this vulnerable group is facing an unprecedented level of calls for violence. LGBTQ+ advocates have long emphasized that online hate and harassment often lead to physical violence. Major social media platforms, including TikTok, have been critiqued for their inadequate protection of LGBTQ+ users, particularly those who identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming. GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index released earlier this year highlighted these platforms’ poor performance in addressing hate speech and harassment targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
While TikTok has removed the content and banned the accounts responsible for the incitement of violence, the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Ethiopia persist. The current situation has left them feeling unsafe and fearful, prompting some to seek refuge abroad. The urgency to address this issue remains crucial to protect the human rights and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community in Ethiopia.
