The Saudis Don’t Like Facebook

Well, when I read the news it didn’t come as a great surprise. Having worked in Saudi Arabia twice; or should I say, having existed there twice, it just reinforced my belief that this country isn’t a kick in the ass away from a dictatorship. According to Associated Press (AP) ‘. . . an official with Saudi Arabia's communications authority says it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn't conform with the kingdom's conservative values.’ Excuse me, ‘conservative values’? So why hasn’t it banned Twitter?

The official says Saudi's Communications and Information Technology Commission blocked the site on Saturday November 13 and when Internet users tried to access the site they got an ‘error’ message. The official stated that Facebook's content had "crossed a line" with the kingdom's conservative morals, but that blocking the site is a temporary measure. But get this, the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. I mean, it gets worse, doesn’t it. You couldn’t make it up. And yet the Saudis recently spent $14billion on arms deals with the United States, the very country which created the Facebook phenomena!

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam and religious leaders have strong influence over policy making and social mores and yet every weekend hundreds of young Saudi men either drive over the causeway linking Bahrain for alternative forms of entertainment. Or they can catch a shuttle flight to get drunk in the drinking dens of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. About three years ago I had cause to stay at a prominent hotel in Manama, the Bahrain capital, and was astonished to see that many of them weren’t there for the proliferation of Chinese prostitutes but for other men!!! As I understand it, homosexuality is a grave sin in Islam which can be punished by flogging and lengthy jail sentences. This isn’t a conservative value but more a reluctance to accept that we are in the 21st century where freedom of expression is the first and last bastion of human rights.

But never mind, Pakistan also imposed a temporary ban on Facebook earlier this year – so at least the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has that in common with a regime fighting for its life from a Taliban/Al-Qaeda insurgency. Looks like the two cheeks of the same backside!