Madawi Rashid: Silence is a crime in the Kingdom of silence

The well-known academy, Madawi al-Rasheed, has criticized Saudi politics, saying that even silence has become a crime in the kingdom of silence, as well as the country for hacking Twitter to spy on its citizens.

The Saudi opposition writer says in an article published by the Middle East Eye website that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to monitor the violators and arrest dissidents, and undermine the activities of Saudis living in exile, where social media are closely monitoring students, academics and activists, before The various Saudi consulates send their files to Riyadh.

Al-Rasheed said the US government convicted two former Twitter employees of spying for Saudi Arabia after they hacked the personal data of more than 6,000 Twitter accounts, including a prominent opposition account that later became close to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

She adds that a Saudi agent is said to have recruited the two employees after lavishing tens of thousands of dollars and precious gifts. Their mission was to pass on information about critics of the Saudi regime to Badr al-Asaker, who is close to bin Salman.

Juggernaut Twitter
Al-Asaker may now be sitting in Bin Salman's office and contemplating how to contain the latest scandal and rediscover Saudi Arabia's image as a safe haven for tourism and heritage, the writer says.

She adds that after this last episode of the scandals series, Taghut Twitter is falling again from his ivory tower after the exposure of its customers and envoys spread around the world.

According to the writer, the Saudi regime did not initiate a ban on Twitter and other social media for reasons, including that bin Salman wants to launch a new era of social media communication, allowing him to launch propaganda campaigns, as well as many alleged reforms.

She adds that bin Salman knows that Saudi youth are already immersed in social media, expressing their aspirations and criticism of the regime.

Arrest and torture
The writer believes that the Saudi youth mocked bin Salman's slogan "Saudi Arabia is great," by pointing out that this slogan is just propaganda can not cover up the cracks suffered by the regime, especially with regard to the arrest and torture of prisoners of conscience and others.

Activists living in exile in the United States have also launched the Hashtag, to expose the falsity of this false grandeur that millions of Saudis do not feel.

Unemployed young Saudis have also launched a special theme called "The Unemployed Saudis Forum" to highlight the buried ambitions of an educated generation that has not yet been able to find jobs under Vision 2030.

Army and sanctions
Bin Salman tightened his watch on social media, and recruited an electronic army to spread his lies, monitor dissenting voices and inflict the heaviest penalties on them, forcing exiles in the diaspora to take the lead and take the banner of struggle from their beleaguered counterparts inside the country.

According to the author, bin Salman uses Twitter to monitor offenders, arrest dissidents, and undermine the activities of Saudis abroad. Critics of the regime were often told that they could only renew their passports if they returned to their country, which led some to seek political asylum. Some of them remained stuck in Western countries.

The writer says that the regime's spies in Twitter were part of the machine that reports on these exiles and hurt them, especially activists and loud voices such as Omar al-Zahrani, who has become a symbol of resistance through the media.

She adds that Twitter has proved to be a good eavesdropping tool to capture and punish dissidents and to cut the tender to those who praise the regime, and silence in itself is a crime.

Salman al-Awdah
The writer refers to the tragic situation of Sheikh Salman al-Awda, who maintained his silence over the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and spoke only once when he called on God to unite the word Muslims and reunite them, in a gesture of reconciliation with Qatar.

She adds that if bin Salman wants to improve his image, he faces serious challenges, especially after his image was tarnished because he was responsible for violating the most important and oldest international norms regarding the sovereignty of embassies and the inviolability of journalists working abroad after the murder of Khashoggi, as well as the killing of thousands of Yemenis in a fierce war raging Five years ago, Yemen destroyed the country.

Bin Salman should also release religious scholars, poets, human rights activists, tribal and professional leaders and others in prison as a first step towards justice.

The writer concludes that the reputation of Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman has been tarnished to the extent that it is no longer possible to repair any of them.