The story of the blogger “Yasmine,” which captured public attention in Egypt, is a revealing mirror of the collapse of value systems in a digital space that has turned into a modern trafficking market, where bodies are sold and illusions are marketed under the banners of “content” and “trends.” “Yasmine,” who built her fame through suggestive clips full of degradation, was not a woman as claimed but a man disguised as a woman to attract young people and make financial profits. Her fall is not just an individual incident but a harsh testimony to the reality of platforms that allow anyone to create a fake identity and drown millions in illusions for a few views and trivial ads. The issue goes beyond a person disguising or claiming femininity. It extends beyond Egypt to Morocco and the Arab world, where everyone chases “trends” even at the cost of public decency.

Platforms open their screens to vulgarity and close them to creativity. How can some convince themselves that publishing offensive content or vulgar language falls under “freedom of expression,” while it is essentially a trade in instincts and deliberate corruption of public taste? Freedom of expression here has turned into freedom of destruction. When Egyptian security agencies moved to confront this wave, they did not pursue “Yasmine” alone but a series of illusion makers on TikTok and other platforms who turned social media into a “digital brothel” generating money at the expense of values and emerging generations. But the deeper question is: Is arresting some names enough while the environment itself produces dozens of new copies every day?

The “Yasmine scandal” does not mean the exposure of a person but the exposure of a reality: a reality that raises an entire generation to believe that the path to fame is not diligence, knowledge, or art, but shouting, vulgarity, and scandals. A reality that exports to our children and teenagers cartoon role models who know nothing of life except cheap imitation and gaining followers at any cost. The most dangerous thing is that this industry finds defenders in the name of “individual freedom,” while in reality it is a new slavery: slavery to platforms, to likes counts, and to sponsors investing in triviality. A society that wants to build healthy generations cannot accept that the public space turns into a dump of visual and behavioral waste. It is time to understand that the battle of values is no less dangerous than the battle of security and economy.

A society whose youth are violated through screens will not be protected by walls or laws alone. What is required is radical reform: digital education starting from school and home, stricter laws to pursue makers of degradation, and cultural initiatives to restore seriousness and creativity. “Yasmine” is just a fallen name, but the phenomenon still exists. Masks may deceive for a while, but the result is always a resounding fall into the swamp of truth.