"Social media crackdown: Saudi Arabia may spy on Twitter users" says an article on RT.com. It says,
"The Saudi Arabian communications regulator plans to link national Twitter bloggers to personal social media user IDs, local media has reported. There are no technical or legal restrictions to the move, but Twitter's official approval is needed."
Will Twitter approve this type of regulation on it's website? This act could potentially result in a decrease of Twitter users in Saudi Arabia, and Twitter may not be anxious to sign off on an act that would negatively affect them. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is a small country, and depending on how many Twitter users there are, it may not affect Twitter as much.
When Twitter users sign in from their mobile phones, they may be asked to register with an ID number, which would enable the Saudi Arabian government to track the users and what they are tweeting.
However, twitter is not the only recent media outlet that Saudi Arabia is attempting to supervise. They have also been trying to monitor conversations on Skype, Whatsapp, and Viber.
The city of Ryiadh has even threatened to ban the use of these social media outlets alltogether if deal cannot be reached with Twitter. The fear of the power of Twitter in terms political uprisings and revolutions is not unfounded. The Arab Springs uprisings two years ago, showed just how powerful twitter can be.
In an article in AlJazeera, Spokesperson for Saudi Arabia Interior Ministry claimed that Twitter is used by fighters to stir social unrest. It is hard to believe that this is really the case, considering religious leaders such as Muslim preachers are one of the most influencial Twitter users. Specifically,
"Sheikh Mohamad al-Arefe has more than 4.3 million worldwide followers, while Sheikh Ayed al-Qarnee has over 2.8 million – sizable followings in a nation of 25 million people."
Since there really is no separation of church and state in Saudi Arabia, what are the Saudi Arabian governments real fears? What are they really getting at by trying to regulate the use of Twitter?
RT.com says, Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik publicly railed against Twitter, calling the social media website “a council of clowns.” Twitter is a place where people “unleash unjust, incorrect and wrong tweets,” Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik said in a speech to other Saudi clerics.
Al-Sheik has publicly criticized Twitter, yet two of the site's most influential users are Muslim preachers. This is a strange clash between religious leaders, since Twitter is not really used by opposition activists in Saudi Arabia. Is there any underlying fear within the Saudi Arabian government and Islam?
The Blaze emphasizes the constant worry of something similar to the Arab Springs Uprising occuring in Saudi Arabia. It says,
"While the Kingdom has been buoyed by the relative security of the Saudi economy and incentives monies to buy domestic peace, the Arab spring remains a constant worry."
The Arab Springs Uprisings are causing a continual worry for the Saudi Arabian government, and those fears are being carried out through the monitoring of social media.