Iraq turns off e-billboards in Baghdad after hacker broadcasts pornographic content
The local media reported that a man has now been arrested after the X-rated material was broadcast
August 21, 2023
Iraqi authorities switched off electronic billboards in Baghdad after a hacker displayed pornographic content on one of the screens on Sunday.
The local media reported that a man has now been arrested by the police after the X-rated material was broadcast to passers-by in the capital.
According to Shafaq News, the authorities turned off digital advertising boards on Sunday, which said: “Iraqi security authorities decided to temporarily turn off screens displaying advertisements in public places in the capital, Baghdad after they were subjected to electronic hacking and immoral clips were displayed in public.”
The adult content was aired on a screen in Uqba bin Nafeh Square, a busy thoroughfare in central Baghdad, read a statement from the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
The statement from the ministry's Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency, posted on Facebook, read: “The Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency, after obtaining judicial approvals and through fieldwork, auditing and monitoring of surveillance cameras, were able to arrest the accused who carried out the hacking.”
Following “preliminary investigations,” the accused man suggested that “he had committed this immoral act due to financial problems with the owner of the company that owns the display screen," the statement went on to add.
CNN confirmed that some, but not all, of the screens are now back in operation.
The Iraqi government announced last year that it planned to block porn sites, though it is not clear how effective that policy has been.
The government has also cracked down on social media influencers over the past year.
A platform called “Report” was launched this year to allow citizens to anonymously report “negative” or “immoral” content seen online. The government has nevertheless insisted that freedoms of expression are not at risk and will always be protected.
Iraq's official media regulator ordered all media and social media companies operating in the Arab state not to use the term “homosexuality” and instead to say “sexual deviance.”
The Communications and Media Commission (CMC) document said the use of the term “gender” was also banned. It prohibited all phone and internet companies licensed by it from using the terms in any of their mobile applications.
