Beirut: A Saudi The app that lets ordinary people “play the role of a police officer” may have alerted authorities to a tweet by a student, whose sentence of 34 years in prison has drawn international condemnation.
Just weeks after the verdict against UK doctoral candidate Salma al-Shahab University of Leeds – Rights groups say another woman was given a 45-year sentence for her social media posts – highlighting action targeting women online.
According to the Washington-based human rights group DAWN, Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was convicted of “using the Internet to tear down the (Saudi) social fabric”.
While it’s not clear how Qahtani’s post was traced, rights groups think the Shahab was reported by citizens using Kolona Amn, a government app that allows citizens to track down road accidents or suspects. Allows officials to be alerted to everyday events such as behavior.
A user posted below Shehab’s comment in a screenshot reviewed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, “I went to your account, and I found it pathetic and full of garbage, I took several pictures and sent them to Kolona Aman.” ,
Kolona Amn, which means “we are all protection” in Arabic, has been downloaded over a million times from the Google Play store.
Despite billing itself as a utility app to speed up “rescue missions”, rights campaigners say it creates a wider net for activists and dissidents who see the authorities as a threat to the Saudi government. helps to insert.
“in problem Saudi Arab It is that their understanding of crime is much broader than is recognizable under international law,” said Rothna Begum, women’s rights researcher. see human rights (HRW).
“It’s so broad and vague; anything can be a crime.”
The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information could not be reached for comment, but officials have previously said there are no political prisoners in the country.
“We have prisoners in Saudi Arabia who have committed crimes and who have been tried and found guilty by our courts,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in July.
digital vigilance
Rights groups say government-employed Twitter trolls harass anyone who strays from the official line, looking for dissent on social media.
But with the kind of surveillance made possible through the Colona AMN app, rights activists say it would have been difficult for the government to trace Shahab’s Twitter presence.
Twitter users can use Klonna MN to flag tweets from other users by tagging the app’s account, or the handle of the country’s state security agency.
Lina Al-Hathloul, head of surveillance and communications at ALQST, a rights group, said she had documented at least eight other instances of online accounts tagging Colona Aman’s account under activists’ tweets.
“What they really want is civil society to be invisible, they don’t want people to exist, not even online,” she said.
Around the world, similar apps have sparked a wave of digital vigilance – from tools that let people report speeding drivers to the police to violations of COVID-19 rules.
They are often controversial.
In South Africa, WhatsApp chat groups that double as neighborhood watches have been criticized for being racist, while in India, so-called cyber volunteers recruited by the government go after online content that they find illegal. or anti-national.
fear and duty
In Saudi Arabia, this is not the first time that an app broadcast by the government has drawn criticism from human rights groups, despite official claims that the tools are only aimed at making everyday tasks easier and safer.
The Tawakalna app – which means “in God we trust” in Arabic – originated as Saudi Arabia’s COVID-19 tracing tool.
Now, it includes a reporting feature that lets citizens file complaints, for example about suspected construction violations, rights campaigners said.
Another app, Balagh, invites people to report corrupt government employees and business violations, but it is sometimes used to settle personal vendettas, he said.
The Absher app is used by Saudis who sponsor foreign workers to allow their workers to leave the country, but critics say it often serves to impede the free movement of workers living in the kingdom .
As per the 2019 HRW report, employers can do this by issuing exit and entry visas with specific dates or by controlling their exit visas.
The app was launched in 2015 when women required the approval of their male guardians to travel, giving men an easy way to control the activities of their female relatives.
Taha Alhajji, legal adviser to the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights, said that persuading ordinary Saudis to spy and spy on each other is often framed as a national duty.
“The other way is fear: if someone knows about a violation and doesn’t report it, they are a party to that violation. The person covering up the crime is considered an accomplice.”
‘Followed everywhere’
Activists said the decisions against Shahab and Qahtani have shocked Saudi Arabia’s activist community and cooled the country’s digital space.
Ever since Shahab was sentenced, social media users have taken to personal accounts of him and his family members, digging up old posts in an attempt to defame him.
According to screenshots seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a user shared comments posted by her parents tagging the Twitter account of Kolona Amn and the State Security Agency (PSS).
A user wrote below Shehab’s father’s post, “I hope @pss_ar and @kamnapp will look at the above information and hold her parents accountable.”
Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Lebanese-based Gulf Center for Human Rights, said the punishment against the mother-in-law was widely seen as a warning to the state’s human rights defenders.
“They seem to follow them everywhere, even when they are in exile,” he said.
Just weeks after the verdict against UK doctoral candidate Salma al-Shahab University of Leeds – Rights groups say another woman was given a 45-year sentence for her social media posts – highlighting action targeting women online.
According to the Washington-based human rights group DAWN, Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was convicted of “using the Internet to tear down the (Saudi) social fabric”.
While it’s not clear how Qahtani’s post was traced, rights groups think the Shahab was reported by citizens using Kolona Amn, a government app that allows citizens to track down road accidents or suspects. Allows officials to be alerted to everyday events such as behavior.
A user posted below Shehab’s comment in a screenshot reviewed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, “I went to your account, and I found it pathetic and full of garbage, I took several pictures and sent them to Kolona Aman.” ,
Kolona Amn, which means “we are all protection” in Arabic, has been downloaded over a million times from the Google Play store.
Despite billing itself as a utility app to speed up “rescue missions”, rights campaigners say it creates a wider net for activists and dissidents who see the authorities as a threat to the Saudi government. helps to insert.
“in problem Saudi Arab It is that their understanding of crime is much broader than is recognizable under international law,” said Rothna Begum, women’s rights researcher. see human rights (HRW).
“It’s so broad and vague; anything can be a crime.”
The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information could not be reached for comment, but officials have previously said there are no political prisoners in the country.
“We have prisoners in Saudi Arabia who have committed crimes and who have been tried and found guilty by our courts,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in July.
digital vigilance
Rights groups say government-employed Twitter trolls harass anyone who strays from the official line, looking for dissent on social media.
But with the kind of surveillance made possible through the Colona AMN app, rights activists say it would have been difficult for the government to trace Shahab’s Twitter presence.
Twitter users can use Klonna MN to flag tweets from other users by tagging the app’s account, or the handle of the country’s state security agency.
Lina Al-Hathloul, head of surveillance and communications at ALQST, a rights group, said she had documented at least eight other instances of online accounts tagging Colona Aman’s account under activists’ tweets.
“What they really want is civil society to be invisible, they don’t want people to exist, not even online,” she said.
Around the world, similar apps have sparked a wave of digital vigilance – from tools that let people report speeding drivers to the police to violations of COVID-19 rules.
They are often controversial.
In South Africa, WhatsApp chat groups that double as neighborhood watches have been criticized for being racist, while in India, so-called cyber volunteers recruited by the government go after online content that they find illegal. or anti-national.
fear and duty
In Saudi Arabia, this is not the first time that an app broadcast by the government has drawn criticism from human rights groups, despite official claims that the tools are only aimed at making everyday tasks easier and safer.
The Tawakalna app – which means “in God we trust” in Arabic – originated as Saudi Arabia’s COVID-19 tracing tool.
Now, it includes a reporting feature that lets citizens file complaints, for example about suspected construction violations, rights campaigners said.
Another app, Balagh, invites people to report corrupt government employees and business violations, but it is sometimes used to settle personal vendettas, he said.
The Absher app is used by Saudis who sponsor foreign workers to allow their workers to leave the country, but critics say it often serves to impede the free movement of workers living in the kingdom .
As per the 2019 HRW report, employers can do this by issuing exit and entry visas with specific dates or by controlling their exit visas.
The app was launched in 2015 when women required the approval of their male guardians to travel, giving men an easy way to control the activities of their female relatives.
Taha Alhajji, legal adviser to the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights, said that persuading ordinary Saudis to spy and spy on each other is often framed as a national duty.
“The other way is fear: if someone knows about a violation and doesn’t report it, they are a party to that violation. The person covering up the crime is considered an accomplice.”
‘Followed everywhere’
Activists said the decisions against Shahab and Qahtani have shocked Saudi Arabia’s activist community and cooled the country’s digital space.
Ever since Shahab was sentenced, social media users have taken to personal accounts of him and his family members, digging up old posts in an attempt to defame him.
According to screenshots seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a user shared comments posted by her parents tagging the Twitter account of Kolona Amn and the State Security Agency (PSS).
A user wrote below Shehab’s father’s post, “I hope @pss_ar and @kamnapp will look at the above information and hold her parents accountable.”
Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Lebanese-based Gulf Center for Human Rights, said the punishment against the mother-in-law was widely seen as a warning to the state’s human rights defenders.
“They seem to follow them everywhere, even when they are in exile,” he said.