Iraq’s official media regulator – Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC) – has ordered all media and social media companies operating in the Arab state not to use the term “homosexuality” and instead to say “sexual deviance,” and similarly not to use “gender”.
In a document, the Iraqi CMC similarly prohibited all phone and internet companies licensed by it from using these terms in any of their mobile applications.
The decision is said to still require final approval, and the penalty for violating the rule has yet to be set.
Iraq actually does not explicitly criminalize same-sex sexual acts, and yet has loosely defined morality clauses in its penal code that have been used to target members of the LGBTQIA community.
