Home Âť Jerusalem Issue Briefs Âť Saudi Arabia Contends with the Social Media Challenge
by Joshua Teitelbaum Published February 2011 Vol. 10, No. 28
8 February 2011
Saudi Arabia Contends with the Social Media Challenge Joshua Teitelbaum
Although they express admiration, Saudis and Gulf residents have no desire to see the chaos on the streets of Cairo and Tunis repeat itself in the squares of Jeddah and Riyadh. Gulf regimes are autocratic, but they do not engender the type of hatred demonstrated towards Mubarak and Ben Ali, and they do not run police states. Like most authoritarian regimes, the Saudis were not enthusiastic about the introduction of the Internet into their country. Internet censorship is made easier in Saudi Arabia by an extremely centralized Internet infrastructure. There are only two nodes that connect outside the country, and all Internet service providers must connect through them. Internet surveillance appears to be quite widespread. According to one report, many of those involved in filtering are Saudi "U.S.-educated techies" who understand the idea of Internet freedom but don't think it applies to Saudi Arabia. On January 1, the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information announced a truly draconian regulation requiring all Internet publishing sites to register and get a license. The ministry was charged with approving the editors of online news sites, just as it does with paper newspapers. There is little likelihood that Saudi Arabia or any of the other Gulf countries will go the way of Tunisia and Egypt because of a system where oil income is used to placate the populace. On January 17, Kuwait announced 1,000 dinar ($3,559) grants and free food coupons for all one million Kuwaiti citizens. Other Gulf states are expected to follow suit.
In Tunisia and Egypt, social media has been key in organizing demonstrations. There is no doubt that Saudi officials are watching events there very carefully. There have been at least one, and perhaps two, copycat self-immolations in the kingdom.1 Saudi leaders are keeping up a brave front. The sharp-tongued former ambassador to the U.S., Turki Al Faysal, was asked at the Davos World Economic Forum if democracy was even more dangerous than a nuclear Iran: "I don't know," he quipped. "In Saudi Arabia, we have neither nuclear weapons nor democracy." Although they express admiration, fundamentally, Saudis and Gulf residents have no desire to see the chaos on the streets of Cairo and Tunis repeat itself in the squares of Jeddah and Riyadh. The press has emphasized the crime and looting which has accompanied the demonstrations. Gulf regimes are autocratic, no doubt, but they do not engender the type of hatred demonstrated towards Mubarak and Ben Ali, and they do not run police states. Many Saudis in particular recognize that, though not perfect, the royal family has brought stability and prosperity to what was once a very poor region. Saudis are not, however, holding back over the tragic results of the recent Jeddah floods, which have killed at least ten