Saudi Arabia Reportedly Blocking Activists’ Twitter Accounts

In its short life, Twitter has become massively popular around the world as a platform for rapid communication.  Users from Kansas to Kandahar can chat with each other using the Web interface, their cell phones, or a variety of programs, and despite the language gap, it seems that many do.

So, when reports of Twitter being blocked somewhere in the world hits the newswaves, its users are bound to take notice.  Back in June, Herdict caught reports that Chinese users were experencing inaccessibility around Twitter – as it turned out, the site was indeed blocked for a period of time following an event in the country.

Now, it seems that Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (which, ironically, is on Twitter) are blocking the Twitter pages of two digital activists in the country: @Mashi97 and @abualkhair.  Popular blogger Saudi Jeans notes:

Blocking @Mashi97 was particularly strange because it came after he tweeted about having fried eggs for breakfast, which made him think that maybe someone at CITC does not like eggs. Also, what CITC don’t seem to realize is that blocking profile pages on Twitter does not prevent the users from updating.

Maktoob Business, based in Jordan, confirmed the report, but as of yet, Herdict has not received any reports from inside Saudi Arabia.  We would love to track this instance of filtering – users in KSA can report the sites to us by going to our Participate page and entering the URL under “test a website.”

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