The Saudi authorities – who operate one of the world's most sophisticated internet filtering systems – receive on average 850 requests per day from members of the public to block access to websites, Asharq Alwsat reports. Requests to unblock websites are running at around 200 a day.

This is a substantial increase since 2001, when blocking requests 
were said to be 500-plus and unblocking requests 100 per day. 

Internet censorship in Saudi Arabia concentrates mainly on blocking pornography and websites promoting "immorality". In 2004, after testing 60,000 web addresses for blocking by the Saudi authorities over a three-year period, the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) reported:

We found that the kingdom’s filtering focuses on a few types of content: pornography (98% of these sites tested blocked in our research), drugs (86%), gambling (93%), religious conversion, and sites with tools to circumvent filters (41%). In contrast, Saudi Arabia shows less interest in sites on gay and lesbian issues (11%), politics (3%), Israel (2%), religion (less than 1%), and alcohol (only 1 site).

Although only a few religious sites were blocked, ONI found that most of those blocked “involved either views opposed to Islam (especially Christian views) or non-Sunni Islamic sects (including Shi’a and Sufism)”. A “significant minority” of Baha’i sites were also blocked but the ONI found no blocking of sites related to Judaism, “and very few sites with Jewish or Hebrew content”. Some sites relating to the Holocaust were blocked, “though this occurs primarily because SmartFilter [the software used by the Saudis] categorises many of these sites as having violent content”. 

Several sites supporting al-Qa’eda were found to be blocked as well as the sites of al-Manar (the Hizbullah TV station) and the Palestinian al-Quds brigades. In the religious area, the blocking of Shi’a websites is perhaps most significant because it further marginalises the kingdom’s own Shi’a minority (thought to be around five per cent of the population).

In the political area, ONI found blocking of “several sites opposing the current [Saudi] government along with a minority of sites discussing the state of Israel, or advocating violence against Israel and the west, and a small amount of material from Amnesty International and Amnesty USA”. In the media area, no major news outlets were blocked, though some e-zines were.

There's more discussion of internet censorship, in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, in my book, What's Really Wrong with the Middle East.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 16 January 2010.