The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to ban the use of instant messaging applications because of failure to control them, Saudi media reveal. It comes a month after the minister for media and culture confirmed censorship of Twitter.
“The Communications and Information Technology Commission has
requested companies operating the applications to meet the
regulatory requirements to avoid their suspension in the
kingdom,” sources told Saudi news site Sabq.
“The commission is now coordinating with the application
operators on the issue,” they said.
Companies were given one week to deal with the situation and decide
upon the required technical measures.
The sources stressed that the procedure was “in accordance with
regulatory procedures,” denying claims that attributed the
decision to commercial motivations.
Messaging applications such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber are at
risk of being banned, Al Arabiya reported.
It’s the latest move by the ultra-conservative Gulf Kingdom, whose
government recently admitted censorship of Twitter.
Just last month, Saudi Arabian Minister for Media and Culture Abdel
Aziz Khoga called on citizens to “raise their awareness” and
contribute to the censorship taken up by the ministry.
“People have to take care of what they are writing on
Twitter,” the minister said.
“It’s getting harder to observe around three million people
subscribing to the social network in the kingdom,” he
added.
The government’s censorship of the social media application led to
the December arrest of Turki al-Hamad, a liberal Saudi writer
accused of “insulting Islam” on his Twitter account.
Hamad was arrested on the orders of Interior Minister Prince
Mohammed Bin Nayef Bin Abdel Aziz, who was tipped off by a
religious organization.
In 2010, Saudi Arabia banned the use of Blackberry phones to send
and receive messages, citing concerns that the communications were
encrypted and could not be monitored, therefore hindering the
country’s efforts to fight terrorism and crime.