SAUDI ARABIA TAKES ITS AUTHORITARIANISM ONLINE / GEOPOLITICAL FUTURES

 Saudi Arabia Takes Its Authoritarianism Online

The Saudi government has tried to control its image online by any means necessary.

By: Hilal Khashan

The past few years have seen a surge of activity on social media platforms, especially Twitter, in Saudi Arabia. 

Forty percent of tweets that come from the Arab world originate in there. 

But in a country that’s generally unaccepting of free speech, the Saudi government has tried to control the narrative by any means necessary. 

It launched an aggressive campaign to suppress any criticism of the royal family and promote a positive image of the royals. 

It also dealt harsh punishments to those who refused to toe the line. (In 2013, one Saudi blogger received a seven-year prison sentence and 600 lashes for promoting liberal thought.) 

It seems the Saudi royals are taking their authoritarian style of rule online.

Riyadh’s Electronic Army

Saudi Arabia understands that, in the digital age, cybersecurity is an essential part of national security. 

It has thus made a concerted effort to protect itself against hostile countries, Saudi dissidents and foreign critics wishing to tarnish its reputation.

One of the main ways the Saudis have chosen to manage their image online is by deploying its so-called electronic army. 

The campaign began in 2009 when a group of Saudis active on Facebook encountered Iranian-sponsored groups critical of the kingdom, its religious doctrine and leading members of the royal family. 

The Arab uprisings in late 2010 – and the wave of Arab activists calling on Saudis to overthrow the regime – resulted in the rise of the electronic army, which adopted the slogan “a homeland that we do not defend, we do not deserve to live in.” 

The campaign gained momentum after King Salman acceded to the throne in 2015 and his son, Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, was appointed minister of defense and secretary-general of the Royal Court, a body that acts as a link between the monarch and government institutions.

The electronic army project was spearheaded by Saud Qahtani, one of MBS’ Royal Court advisers who was later indicted by Turkish prosecutors for his role in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. 

Qahtani led the drive to silence critics, recruiting insiders at Twitter to track down detractors and deploying an army of trolls, sometimes referred to as “flies,” to harass them online. 

The Saudis even offered generous compensation to those willing to go after their critics on their behalf. 

They often use abusive language to discredit human rights advocates and twist the truth to promote the government’s agenda and prevent Saudis from thinking independently.

Since joining the Royal Court’s propaganda efforts, the Saudi electronic army has become one of the largest disinformation networks in the Middle East. 

Twitter has deleted thousands of fake accounts linked to the Saudi state but admits that it can’t fully stamp out the problem.

Setting the Agenda

Cybersecurity efforts are usually used to safeguard critical assets against espionage and hacking. 

In Saudi Arabia, however, the priority seems to be protecting the image of the royal family, which is wary of any hint of opposition and extremely sensitive to criticism, however mild. 

Khashoggi’s death is a case in point.

Online trolls have recently targeted the Palestinians ahead of a possible normalization deal with Israel. 

Anonymous Saudi social media users have demonized the Palestinians, referring to them as remnants of the Canaanite and Roman eras who have become “something of a liability for our sister state of Israel.” 

Trolls repeatedly claimed that there was no such country as Palestine and that Saudis will never have peace with Palestinians. 

Last year, the centralized command that issues directives to the “flies” circulated a memorandum to discontinue use of the “Palestine issue” label. 

It also issued an order to describe Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians as the “northern Arabs,” and North Africans as “Africa’s Berbers.”

The trolls are MBS’ weapon of choice against his enemies at home. 

A concerted online campaign by his loyalists justified the removal of his predecessor, Mohammed bin Nayef, as crown prince by alleging he was guilty of administrative mismanagement and drug abuse. 

Other targets include those in the highest echelons of society who took issue with MBS’ most important policies, such as Saudi Arabia’s war effort in Yemen and the controversial Vision 2030 project.

Riyadh justifies its attack campaign by pointing out that Saudi Arabia has been the target of numerous destabilization efforts since the 1950s, and yet its leadership has managed to stabilize the country, politically and economically. 

In 2017, the government announced the Saudi Federation for Cyber Security and Programming, an initiative primarily designed to involve more Saudis in promoting the country’s security, though it is also used to harass those who believe in extreme religious ideologies.

Apart from defaming its critics and human rights activists, much of Saudi Arabia’s digital media efforts revolve around MBS himself – not only his capacity as crown prince but also his competence as military commander. 

A mysterious video that appeared on YouTube in 2018 showed him commanding a successful invasion of Iran to cheering Iranian crowds who celebrated the arrival of Saudi troops in Tehran. 

The video sought to demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s impressive arsenal as well as MBS’ competency as a military leader. 

It’s extremely unlikely that the video would be posted without his consent.

The crown prince is constantly in the news. 

Rarely a day goes by without online Saudi newspapers printing his photo and highlighting his achievements. 

Saudi media and the electronic army are currently celebrating MBS’ latest stunt to reduce carbon emissions in the Middle East by planting 50 billion trees in a massive afforestation project. 

The project is part of an effort to rehabilitate MBS’ reputation after a spate of scandals and policy failures. 

He began his rise to power by joining the war in Yemen, a conflict that has inflicted a heavy toll on Yemeni’s impoverished population. 

In November 2017, he arrested dozens of Saudi princes, business leaders and government ministers allegedly to eradicate corruption but in reality to centralize power in his hands. 

A month later, he launched the Saudi Entertainment Ventures Company, partly to deflect attention from his sweeping political and economic changes. 

The recent release of the CIA report that implicated MBS in Khashoggi’s murder has further tarnished his image in the West.

Saudi Socialization

Not all Saudi social media users who express enthusiastic support for the royal establishment operate under the umbrella of the electronic army. 

Saudis frequently issue disingenuous statements of support to dispel any belief that they might not be good citizens. 

During the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar, for example, many Saudis expressed support for the government stance, even if the issue didn’t mean much to them.

That’s because Saudi Arabia has a rigid system of socialization in which the importance of obedience is instilled at a young age. 

Thus, Saudi political culture does not tolerate criticism or questions being asked of leadership. 

Occasionally, Saudi writers question why Saudis refuse to listen to opposing views. 

When confronted with ideas that challenge their belief system, they usually reject them and often hurl insults at their opponents. 

Presenting new ideas isolates their advocates and creates cognitive dissonance among people socialized in an environment that does not encourage free thinking.

There have been many high-profile cases in which people who exercised free speech felt the wrath of the Saudi establishment. 

Khashoggi, who once called MBS a “beast,” was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. (Though he feared the crown prince, he failed to take adequate measures to protect himself when he entered the consulate.) 

Saudi princess Basma, the daughter of King Saud, who ruled Saudi Arabia between 1953 and 1964, antagonized MBS when she demanded recognition of freedom, justice and universal human rights. 

She was arrested in 2019 and held in the notorious al-Haer prison despite her poor health. 

A top Saudi diplomat publicly threatened to kill Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, in 2020 for investigating Khashoggi’s murder. 

The Saudi electronic army accused her of attempting to extort money from the kingdom – a common accusation leveled against foreigners. 

These cases are lessons for others who might try to challenge the royal family’s authority in the future.