Sex traffickers target Ugandans on TikTok

Violet worked as a sex worker in Kikubamutwe-Kabalagala in Kampala. When the country went into lockdown following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, she chose to reform and hunt for a decent job abroad.

“I never wanted to work anywhere in Uganda since I lived in shame and my worry was that people would notice me. Kampala is small, you cannot hide,” she explains.

Violet started looking out for people who would connect her to a job in the Middle East or Europe, and she was advised by a friend to open up a TikTok account.

“She told me there are many international job offers on TikTok and she advised me to consider looking for live broadcast sessions about job placements,” Violet explains.

In November 2022, she watched a live broadcast about job placements in Canada on the same platform.

She engaged in the conversation where the host encouraged live viewers in the comment section to contact the number placed in the lower thirds on the screen or visit his mailbox.

Violet recalls that the moment she shared her number with the account owner, she received a phone call from a woman, who guided her on what to do. 

“My intention was Canada and the lady told me that the available offers were in India and Thailand,” she further discloses.

She was asked to meet a one Auntie Fatie, whom she met at Gazzaland shopping centre in downtown Kampala.

“Auntie Fatie told me the job was ready and she processed everything in less than a month,” she reveals, adding, “I neither had money nor a passport but she delivered everything and upkeep as I waited.”

In March 2023, Violet was handed over to someone who identified herself as a Kenyan businesswoman.

The woman told her that she was going to work in her supermarket in New Delhi, India. She ended up in a different place altogether. 

“We are in a home, not a supermarket,” reveals Violet, who has been in India since March.

Nightmare in India
On arrival, Violet’s new employers revealed that she was going to do sex work and that she would work without pay for seven months to refund the money they spent on her travel. After that, she could work for herself while paying house rent.

“I can adjust to the situation because I was a sex worker before, but we have a group of innocent young women and girls who are dragged into a venture they do not understand,” she explains.

She reveals that some girls spend days weeping and they are handed over to police that detain them as illegal immigrants.

Others, she further discloses, “either run to the streets or find solace in drug abuse to forget their pain.”

She reveals that they spend time in houses transacting with men on a couple of Indian sex platforms pre-installed on the phones given to the girls on arrival.

“They give us phones that are designed for their business. Those who adapt quickly are allowed to use other social media platforms and communicate back home in Uganda,” she discloses.

With Tiktok gaining popularity in Uganda each passing day, crooked individuals are using the platform to lure unsuspecting persons—especially the youth, who flock to the platform in quest for jobs.

The traffickers share short video clips with inscriptions announcing unhealthy job opportunities such as opportunities to feature in adult videos, share X-rated videos glorifying sex work and conducting live videos announcing non-existent jobs and educating viewers on how to travel to wealthy countries through fake marriages.

What traffickers do
Joanitah Ndagire, the coordinator of survivors of human trafficking at John Paul II Justice and Peace Centre in Uganda, explains that much as the trend was common with Facebook, TikTok is a new haven for sex trafficking.

“We recently rescued a victim who was lured via TikTok and taken to a house in the Middle East where she was exploited and sexually harassed,” she reveals.

Ndagire says the traffickers utilise live broadcasts on TikTok to lure their prey. 

“They tempt victims with exciting opportunities in real-time streams and they have multiple accounts that they use to advertise their agendas,” she adds.

She says the jobs frequently used to lure victims include massage parlours, acting, escort service and modelling, among others.

“Some openly say ‘we want girls who can make rich people happy’ at a house party or abroad and they tag exciting salaries to the said job to manipulate people,” she further divulges.

She adds that during the TikTok live session, the traffickers coordinate a couple of users, who are paraded to testify that they worked with particular individuals and they made it in life. Some engage potential recruits in the comment section.

Miriam Mwiza, an anti-human trafficking activist, says this is a trend that has moved away from Facebook to TikTok.

She says there is a notable shift from other social media platforms to TikTok and the fact is that traffickers will always target where people are.

Much as Facebook used to be the most used social media platform in Uganda, the trend changed when the platform was banned in the country.

Currently, Ugandans online use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access the platform.

Mwiza warns that uncensored access to TikTok is giving freedom to traffickers to advertise their devious ventures, hence promoting sex and human trafficking.

According to data research website, Backlinco.com, TikTok is currently the most engaging social media app. Its statistics are in their own orbit.

Take the average session length of 10.85 minutes, which doubles the engagement on Pinterest that clocks 5.06 minutes to place a distant second.

In 2019, the time spent on TikTok was a mammoth 68 billion hours.

Police efforts
The 2022 police crime report indicate that 668 cases of human trafficking were reported as compared to the tally of 362 in 2021.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigire says most reported social media-related crimes have been linked to Facebook, although the numbers are currently decreasing.

“A lot of people are still being scammed and raped on Facebook, but we are handling the matter,” he told Monitor.

He further explains that for the case of TikTok, police recently arrested a one Joseph Ngoma, a TikTok user, who filmed himself sexually abusing a minor. He recorded himself in a lodge kissing her and later posted the video on the social media platform.

Global picture
The US’ National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) noted that TikTok’s rise in the country created a hunting ground for predators to access, engage, and groom children for abuse.

A report indicated that exploiters utilise TikTok to find and view underage users, comment on videos, and message children, often requesting or sending sexually explicit videos or pictures.

After being named to the 2020 Dirty Dozen List and meeting with NCOSE, TikTok implemented several recommendations to significantly improve their safety features for minors, such as disabling direct messaging for those under 16 and allowing parents to lock controls with a pin code.

TikTok also released extensive community guidelines, clearly defining terms and listing activities and content prohibited on their platform, including content that “depicts, promotes, or glorifies” prostitution or pornography, content that simulates sexual activity (either verbally, in text, or even through emoji’s), or non-consensual sex.

Social media stats
According to DataReportal.com, there are at least 11.77 million Internet users in Uganda as per the data collected by January 2023. Uganda’s Internet penetration rate is at 24.6 percent.

Global stats indicate that the distribution of social media usage in Uganda as of 2023 is: Twitter (41.08 percent); Pinterest (16.44 percent); Facebook (12.7 percent); LinkedIn (12.4 percent); YouTube (9.36 percent), Instagram (6.88 percent).

There is no clear data indicating the number of TikTok users in Uganda, but various sources indicate that TikTok has 1.601 billion active users globally.

Angella Summer Namubiru is the most followed Ugandan on TikTok. She commands a following of 6.1 million followers, although in her recent interview with Daily Monitor’s Sqoop magazine, she indicated that most of her followers are from the United States and Asia.