The Kingdom of Morocco, located in North Africa, has long been a major tourist destination. The once French ruled country continues to criminalise same sex activity and also sexual activity outside of wedlock. And now the actions of a member of the LGBTI community have placed Morocco’s gay community, and men who have sex with men, in peril.

A Moroccan born trans woman and Instagram influencer has posted to her 600,000+ followers encouraging them to create fake profiles on gay dating apps in order to “catfish” their brothers, sons, husbands and neighbours in order to “out” them. While her Instagram profile has since been suspended,there are media reports of many men being outed, causing distress and despair in the gay and trans communities.

To find out what is happening on the ground, we spoke to Ahmed Benchemsi, the Advocacy and Communications Director for Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa division, based in Morocco.