The Ministry of Information in the Syrian government’s regime announced its intention to monitor and take legal measures against platforms broadcasting unethical content within Syria.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Ministry confirmed that it would collaborate with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice to track down unlicensed platforms and their operators and take appropriate legal action against them.
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The Ministry emphasized that this initiative stems from its responsibility to combat the spread of low-quality content on many unlicensed platforms, which it claims violates moral sanctity and undermines the values and national principles of Syrian society.
This action comes at a time when “sketches”—short scenes and videos featuring obscure performers or secondary actors, often containing suggestive or sexually implicit content—are becoming increasingly prevalent in order to attract views.
These videos are typically shared on online platforms that distribute content via social media.
Sexually Suggestive Language
“Sketches” aim to highlight specific societal issues by critiquing them and drawing attention to them, often through humor, and generally last between one and ten minutes.
Many “sketches” on the “Bana Foundation for Production and Artistic Distribution” page, which was established in 2004, focus on themes like infidelity. However, these sketches often fail to address the topic with comedic sophistication, instead relying on phrases lacking artistic value, as noted by most of the page’s followers, who number over one million.
The primary feature of these posts is the use of sexually suggestive language and provocative displays, performed by relatively unknown actors in the Syrian arts scene.
According to Amr al-Hosny, a digital media and social networking expert, in a previous interview with Enab Baladi, social media platforms often allow the publication of content with sexual innuendo, provided it is not promoted through ads, under the guise of “freedom of expression.”
Hosny explained that there is a distinction between sexual suggestion and explicit sexual content. Sometimes, social media algorithms are unable to block posts containing vague sexual innuendo because the words used are not categorized as sexually suggestive by the platform’s algorithms.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
