Tweet or Post Criticism of the Saudi Government and Get Executed

Tweet or Post about the Government of Saudi Arabia and you Could Face the Death Penalty!

 

A government source has revealed to a state run website that anyone that uses social media to criticize the government of Saudi Arabia will now face penalties from a simple internet ban through to the Death Penalty. So before you tweet that smart little comment that you just thought up about the latest King you might want to think twice!

 

“Only the worst ‘rumour-mongers’ will be executed, while lesser offenders will be punished with lashes, imprisonment, travel bans, house arrest and a social media ban, a Ministry of Justice source is quoted to have said.”

Quoted from the UK Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3261575/Saudi-Arabia-warns-Twitter-Facebook-rumour-mongers-risk-DEATH-PENALTY-ruling-kind.html

 

With this being a new ruling it is still not clear exactly what sort of a tweet you would have to make to be facing the executioners sword in Chop Chop square next Friday. However you certainly are not going to want to be the one facing a test case to see if your social media postings are worthy of a direct visit to heaven. The rulings will come through a senior judge – these are the guys that sentence rape victims to death for having sex with someone that is not their husband and sentence 80+ year old women to lashes and prison for allowing deliver guys to bring in the groceries; so I am sure that we will see a very fair system.

 

Saudi Does not Mess Around When it Comes to the Death Penalty

 

Back in 2012 a 17 year old was caught at an anti-government protest and arrested; in the last couple of weeks the Saudi Government has announced that he is to be crucified to death for his crimes. And what crime did he commit I hear you ask?

“Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, now 21, was charged with attending a protest, teaching first aid to demonstrators and using his Blackberry phone to urge more people to join in.”

 

Can the Saudi Government get you?

 

If you are in Saudi and you start tweeting, posting or blogging about things that they don’t want you to talk about you can be pretty sure that they could find out. It is not hard to trace an IP address and anyway, most people use their own accounts with their own names on them! Just like most other countries have their own internal spies monitoring emails and other internet communications so does Saudi – and if they catch you saying the wrong thing they are not just going to be putting you on a “watch list”.

Saudi does have access to what you send on your computer or even through your phone. I remember blackberry having all of their messaging service suspended in the kingdom a few years back until they allowed the government access to their servers. While they may not be interested in you flirting on your phone or through instant messenger with the pretty little thing that you spotted at the mall last week, they are going to be interested if you start saying bad things about the rulers of the country.

 

So if you do want to say something bad about those in power within Saudi Arabia you may wish to wait until you are safely the other side of their border and beyond their reach. While they may be able to censor what you have to say there within the kingdom you don’t want to have that final censorship applied to you permanently.

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