On Monday, a French court convicted an Algerian online influencer of encouraging terrorism on TikTok and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.
The 25-year-old man, identified by officials as Youcef A. and known on social media as Zazou Youssef, was arrested in the western city of Brest for “advocating an act of terrorism” on the platform.
Prosecutor Camille Miansoni suggested a two-year prison term for the offence, which is punishable by up to seven years.
On December 31, Youssef participated in a video broadcast on the popular platform calling for attacks in France and violence in Algeria.
Alain Espinasse, the police prefect for France’s western Finistere region, initiated a judicial probe when officers informed him of the footage.
According to police, Youssef was living in France on a temporary residency visa and had filed an appeal against a previous sentence for vandalism during riots in 2023.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court ruled that Youssef could not live in France for 10 years.
TikTok has stated it has banned the account from which the video was uploaded for publishing many videos that violated its hate speech policy.
