Saudi Arabia and the Web

One subject I've dealt with from time to time is the tension between social media and Web 2.0 on the one hand and traditional Middle Eastern state control of media on the other. Though Saudi Arabia is well known for keeping a close watch on the Internet and blocking sites it considers religiously or morally offensive or politically suspect, as I've noted previously no country that is part of the global economy — as the Kingdom surely is — is able to close all the doors. Lately journalists and Saudi bloggers have been calling attention to some new efforts at control, and mounting efforts to counter them.

You could start with this report at Menassat on "Naqa Tube," an apparent attempt to create a "pure" YouTube. The site is here. Now YouTube itself tends to have pretty stratlaced terms of service and is hardly full of rampantly objectionable material, but apparently many videos are offensive by Saudi standards. This appears separate from a campaign called "SaudiFlager" (a misspelling for "Flagger") which seeks to "flag" YouTube videos that contain material objectionable to the Saudi government or society, in order to get them taken down. The Saudi blogger who blogs as "Saudi Jeans" has suggested creating a "SaudiUnflagger" movement, and has noted that the government has been blocking Twitter Profiles in some cases: not the feeds, the profiles. Sometimes the censors just don't seem to get it. Saudi Jeans has also commented on the Naqa Tube idea.

Then there's this story in the Saudi Gazette:

Authorities are to study putting in place a law to govern the workings of Internet news websites and make them answerable to a single body in the same way as the Kingdom’s press is answerable to the Ministry of Culture and Information. Undersecretary for Internal Media Abdul Rahman Al-Hazza’ said the aim will be to codify an Internet law.

Good luck with that. I don't doubt that the existing Saudi media, who are already under regulation by the Ministry of Culture and Information, will likely be willing to place their news sites under the same supervision. But in the long term, it's very difficult to regulate Internet content except by blocking access. Unless you block Facebook or Twitter altogether, how can you prevent your citizens from posting news of their own?