ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission on Monday decided to impose annual taxation on social media influencers and content creators based on the number of their followers, ranging from 350,000 to 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars.
Any individual with more than five million followers must pay an annual tax of 1,000,000 dinars, and with 100,000 to 500,000 followers must pay 350,000 dinars, the Commission said in a statement.
Individuals with three-five million followers, one-three million followers, and half a million followers will be taxed 850,000 dinars, 650,000, and 450,000, respectively.
This decision comes as part of ongoing efforts by the Iraqi government to boost non-oil revenues and regulate the work of online celebrities and influencers.
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.
Earlier this month, Iraq’s Digital Media Center (DMC) announced that they had 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.
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 violates public morals and indecent acts that violate public decency, which the Iraqi Penal Code addressed in Articles 399 to 404.
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