By Eman El-Shenawi | Al Arabiya News.
A Saudi columnist has encouraged the country’s religious police to
monitor social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, targeting
“evil” accounts that “promote pornography, magic and sorcery.”
Around
41% of Internet users in Saudi Arabia are on the micro-blogging site
Twitter, with many accessing the site on their mobile phones. (File
photo: Reuters)
In a column published in the Saudi-based al-Madina newspaper on Friday,
Lulu al-Hubaishi noted that efforts by the religious police, officially
known as the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of
Vice, to target such “vices” should be bolstered.
“The decision of the Haia (religious police) to activate its awareness
and to monitor social media violations, which are difficult to control
and purify in terms of contents, is extremely important in order to
protect society and the youth, especially those who frequently visit
social networking websites with good intentions,” wrote Hubaishi.
The writer went on to say that the police force should look beyond popular platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Shocked
“They [the religious police] are shocked by those exploiting these
websites to spread moral decay without any deterrent. What remains to be
done is to expand the hunt so that other authorities will join the Haia
in this campaign. They should cover all websites exploited by evil and
immoral people and not only on Twitter alone. They should include Keek,
FaceBook, Gamezer and others,” Hubaishi added.
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