Over the weekend, leaked nude videos of a TikToker called “Chicken, Chicken” hit X and TikTok, and Uganda’s internet lost its collective mind. Thousands of amateur detectives started examining birthmarks, analyzing rooms, comparing body types like they were solving a murder mystery instead of participating in someone’s public humiliation. Fun times.

Then Minister of State for Youth Balaam Barugahara decided this needed a government response. Called the videos “unacceptable and damaging.” Demanded police investigation. Promised “rehabilitation.”

Let that sink in. A government minister made an official statement about someone’s alleged nude videos and basically put a target on their back. In a country where the Anti-Homosexuality Act can put you in prison for life and the Computer Misuse Act can jail you for “offensive communication,” having a minister single you out publicly is roughly equivalent to having a bounty put on your head.

So what do you do when you’re drowning and there’s no lifeguard coming? “Chicken, Chicken” came back online with his own theory: “It’s not me, it’s these people.” He dropped names. Locations. Identifying details. Sent his followers after them like a pack of hunting dogs. The hunted became the hunter. Because when the system offers you no protection and every path leads to prosecution, self-preservation stops looking like a choice and starts looking like the only option.

Can we blame him? I don’t know. But I understand why he did it.

We have no idea if anyone in those videos is actually gay. And it doesn’t matter. These laws don’t need you to actually be gay to destroy you. They just need someone to say you are. They just need a video, real or fake. Think you’re safe because you’re straight? Tell that to the people “Chicken, Chicken” named who are now getting doxxed and harassed.

The system doesn’t care about truth. It cares about accusation. And accusation is all it takes.

Uganda’s TikTok has essentially become a hate machine. Anti-LGBTQ+ content gets boosted. Misinformation gets amplified. Outright harassment gets engagement, and engagement is all the algorithm cares about.

Content creators figured out the formula pretty quickly: post something homophobic, get views, be famous. Add our lovely laws to that toxic mix, and you get this—a platform where people compete to be the most hateful, backed by government policy that says “yeah, this is fine actually, keep going.”

Let’s count the casualties. There’s “Chicken, Chicken” himself, facing public humiliation and potential prosecution. There are the people he named, now facing their own doxxing campaigns. There are people guilty by resemblance. There are people guilty by association. See how fast this spreads? The violence multiplies. Each victim creates more victims trying to save themselves. Everyone loses.

About that promise of “assessment and rehabilitation”—it sounds nice and helpful, right? Except it doesn’t mean therapy or support. It means conversion therapy. It means treating someone’s sexuality like a disease that needs curing. That’s not help. That’s torture with a PR department and a budget line.

These laws created a situation where nobody can win. You can’t report revenge porn without admitting you made “offensive content.” You can’t seek help without potentially outing yourself to authorities who might prosecute you. You can’t defend yourself without putting others in danger.

It’s a perfectly designed, mathematically precise, inescapable trap. And the people who made these laws knew exactly what they were doing. This isn’t an accident. This is the intended result: fear, silence, people turning on each other.

Digital security isn’t optional anymore. It’s about survival. Lock everything down. Privacy settings on max, every platform. Think before you post anything, anywhere. Your face doesn’t need to be on every platform. Use avatars. Location services should be off. Trust nobody with intimate photos or videos. Two-factor authentication on everything. Keep your queer social media presence separate from your real name, your job, your family.

Your safety comes before your visibility. Always.

This is what happens when governments legislate who people are allowed to love and how they’re allowed to exist. You get chaos, cruelty, and a society where everyone is one accusation away from having their life destroyed. The people making these laws think this is working. They see the fear, the silence, the way people are turning on each other, and they think “Perfect.”

We need real revenge porn laws that protect victims. Platform accountability. Decriminalization of consensual relationships. Complete overhaul of laws that criminalize existence.

What we’ll probably get is more of the same, until enough people realize that nobody’s safe under these laws.

You’re not safe just because you’re not LGBTQ+. You’re not safe just because you’ve “done nothing wrong.” These laws don’t care about truth. They care about control. They care about fear.

We’re all just one viral video away from being the next target. The only question is whether we’ll realize it in time to do something about it, or whether we’ll just keep watching people get destroyed and telling ourselves it could never happen to us.