ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s Digital Media Center (DMC) announced on Tuesday that they have observed a “clear increase” in Iraqi social media usage in 2025 compared to the previous year, adding that TikTok is the preferred platform for Iraqis.

“The number of users reached 34.3 million according to statistics issued on March 3, 2025, representing 73.8 percent of the population, compared to 31.95 million last year,” revealed the DMC in a publication on their website.

DMC General Supervisor Muhannad Habib al-Samawi detailed that “some platforms have witnessed rapid growth, while others have declined, reflecting the existence of transformations”

“We have witnessed a significant increase in the number of TikTok users, which amounted to about 2.35 million additional users,” he added.

The data shows that YouTube has seen a slight decline, compared to TikTok’s sharp rise in numbers, revealing the preference of users towards the more short-video content that TikTok provides in contrast to YouTube’s longer form of content. 

Apart from TikTok gaining popularity, the statistics remain roughly stagnant for the rest of the platforms showing only slight changes.

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have tried taking measures to ensure safe and decent conduct on these platforms, especially in terms of regulating content creation in a bid to try to preserve “public decency” and reduce the potential negative influence of these platforms on the Iraqi public.

In early 2023, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced the formation of a special committee to combat "indecent content" that violate public morals and indecent acts that violate public decency, which the Iraqi Penal Code addressed in Articles 399 to 404.

Article 403 of the Penal Code deals with the production of films, drawings, writings, signs, or anything else that violates public decency and public morals, and its provisions apply to all defendants whose cases are brought before the judiciary in this context.

In late January, the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission announced a vote on a special regulation for the work of online celebrities and digital content creators, which aims to regulate the work of this category of content in the media and social networking sites.

Conversely, many see the Iraqi Interior Ministry's procedures as a threat to the media and specifically to personal freedoms.

The Kurdistan Region’s authorities have similarly followed suit and intensified efforts to combat what they identify as indecent content. 

Sulaimani local security forces (Asayish) in late February arrested 11 TikTok content creators and seized their accounts for inappropriate conduct on the social media platform.