Key facts
- X has blocked accounts of Saudi dissidents within the kingdom.
- The blocking is in response to orders from Saudi authorities.
- Content is made unavailable through geoblocking, preventing viewing inside Saudi Arabia.
- Similar actions were previously taken by Meta's Facebook and Instagram.
- Account holders received notifications that their content was withheld to comply with Saudi laws.
- Human rights organizations are calling for the restoration of these accounts.
Elon Musk's social media platform X has begun blocking accounts of Saudi Arabian dissidents within the kingdom, complying with orders from Saudi authorities. This move makes X the latest major US tech company to restrict content visibility inside Saudi Arabia, following similar actions by Meta's Facebook and Instagram earlier this year.
According to the human rights organization ALQST, over 60 accounts on X have been made unavailable in Saudi Arabia since mid-July through geoblocking. Affected individuals include prominent activists, academics, and independent media, such as Yahya Assiri, who runs ALQST, and US-based critic Abdullah Alaoudh. Account holders received emails from X stating their content was withheld to comply with Saudi laws, citing material that infringes on public order, religious values, or private life.
Abdullah Aljuraywi of ALQST expressed concern that technology companies are enabling suppression rather than protecting free speech. Meta previously indicated it may restrict content in countries where it violates local law, even if it doesn't breach the company's own standards. YouTube also blocked some dissident accounts in the kingdom. Ghanem al-Masarir, a satirist whose accounts were blocked, expressed surprise that Musk complied with the Saudi requests and predicted other authoritarian countries might follow suit.