(Reuters) – An important Saudi official riding in a chauffered Rolls Royce unspools a wire
fence across previously unclaimed land. “It’s mine now,” he says.
The scene, in a YouTube spoof video satirising a new state agency to combat corruption, has attracted
2.2 million viewers in a strait-laced Islamic kingdom where Saudi online comedians are tackling once-taboo subjects – and
gaining a wide following.
Another video satirises a prince for mishandling anti-corruption demonstrations, while
mobile phone footage of the so-called morality police harassing a family in a shopping mall went viral this year with over
180,000 hits. The overall impact of such vignettes cannot be measured, but in Saudi Arabia, where around 70 percent of the
population is under the age of 30, and where Internet penetration is around 40 percent, social media are driving public
debate on a host of subjects that were once seen as strictly off-limits. “(Our) team is very careful not to cross the red
lines and instead reflects all the issues that have caused controversy or debate that have been discussed in the media,” said
Lama Sabri, a writer for “Aaltayer”, which translates roughly as “On The Fly”, one of the popular YouTube shows.
“The
program also uses comedy to make fun of the existence of these red lines,” she added.
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with
no elected parliament, where the most senior positions are occupied by high-ranking royals, some of whom also have extensive
business interests. The media is censored and reporters who cross unofficial red lines can face the sack, hefty fines or even
prison sentences. But bloggers and contributors to online forums now openly discuss social ills, government inefficiency and
corruption, while a Twitter user who ridicules the royal family has attracted 250,000 followers. “The Internet has always
provided a space for Saudis to express themselves freely in unprecedented ways, and this (Twitter) is just the latest
platform,” said Ahmed al-Omran, a well-known Saudi blogger. “People are becoming more vocal and critical on
Twitter.”
Social media helped to catalyse the political unrest that convulsed many Arab countries last year,
mobilising street protests that overturned regimes and led to mass insurrection across North Africa and the Middle
East.
Saudi Arabia, where the king is broadly popular, escaped that surge of public anger and analysts say the growth
of more forceful debate is unlikely to send crowds into the streets.
SATIRE AND PARODY
But government officials
are being skewered online, in comic films and other formats, as never before.
One film mocking the Commerce Ministry
for perceived double standards in enforcing business regulations attracted more than 915,000 hits on YouTube. Small traders
must stick to the letter of the law, it suggested, but powerful businessmen can get away with selling the public that rarest
of commodities: air.
Not all the criticism comes in comic or satirical guise.
More than 52,000 people have
viewed a film commemorating victims of Jeddah’s deadly 2011 floods by showing notional “corpses” wrapped in blue sheets in
the worst-hit areas.
Many Jeddah residents blamed the disaster on the government’s failure to erect proper flood
defenses.
Countless Saudis have seen the mobile phone footage of the morality police accosting a family out shopping.
King Abdullah later sacked the head of the religious organization dedicated to enforcing its vision of Islamic
behavior.
On Twitter, an anonymous writer using the pseudonym “Mujtahidd” has amassed a huge following with a series
of detailed posts about the alleged misdeeds of members of the extensive royal family.
The writer accused one senior
royal of bullying a judge into helping him perpetrate property fraud by forging documents, and denounced another for stock
market manipulation.
“I believe that exposing corruption on its real scale is a very effective way of convincing
people to move against it,” Mujtahidd said in an email to Reuters.
The tweets have gained such notoriety that the
Grand Mufti, without referring to Mujtahidd directly, launched his own attack on Twitter last month, saying the social
network “promotes lies” and includes “attacks against religious and society figures”.
ESTABLISHMENT
CONCERNS
While politically engaged Saudis are by turns thrilled and scandalised by the uncontrollable nature of online
debate, the establishment has shown it is worried.
A law introduced last year made blogs and other social media
subject to some of the same restrictions as conventional media.
“I enjoy reading Mujtahidd’s tweets, but it’s
dangerous because he’s attacking these very prominent people without any sort of evidence and hurting public confidence in
the state,” said one prominent Saudi.
The example of Hamza Kashgari, a young blogger who may face trial after being
extradited from Malaysia for allegedly blasphemous posts about the Prophet Mohammad, is a stark warning of what can happen
when online comments outrage public opinion or upset the authorities.
Some Saudis believe the greater public scrutiny
that social media allows is making a mark as more senior officials and royal family members take note and join online
discussions.
Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, the half-brother of King Abdullah, and Information Minister Abdulaziz Khoja
are among the most senior Saudi personalities to join Twitter.
“Definitely the government is paying attention and
monitoring… The number of subscribers on Twitter in Saudi is among the highest in the region so it is being looked at with
some seriousness,” said Hussein Shobokshi, a Saudi analyst.
“It will be one of the things that we will see growing to
have more and more influence,” he added.
(Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
(This
story corrects spelling in paragraph 10)
