The Saudi authorities are threatening to block popular communication services such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber unless the operating companies agree to monitoring of messages and calls.

Al-Arabiya reports that the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has given companies until the end of this week to respond.

"In case they say it is impossible to monitor the applications, the commission said it will consider procedures to block them altogether in the kingdom."

The Jeddah-based Arab News says the authorities are concerned because the applications use encrypted connections:

"According to two informed sources who work at local telecommunication companies, this issue has been at the top of the agenda of discussions during meetings between heads of telecom companies and the CITC over the past 20 days. The meetings have finally concluded with the CITC demanding that it be allowed to monitor the encrypted applications."

Predictably, the authorities justify their demand for monitoring on the grounds that it will help prevent crime and terrorism. But, as Ahram Online points out, conservatives in the kingdom are worried about the growth of internet-based social networks which are outside their control and which "have enlarged the severely restricted scale of freedom of expression".

Last week, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, complained that most young people are wasting their time on chatting and using the internet, especially Twitter. He denounced Twitter as a "council of clowns" and a place for those who "unleash unjust, incorrect and wrong tweets".

The Saudi capital, Riyadh, is reputed to have more Twitter users per head of population than any other city in the world.

Some suspect a financial motive behind the latest move – to protect the phone companies from losing revenue to services that are cheaper or free of charge – though the CITC denies this.

An attempt to block Skype, WhatsApp, etc, would certainly cause a lot of anger among users in the kingdom. Arab News gives some examples:

"I would be very disappointed if CITC disconnects this server; I use it every day to talk to my wife and children who live in India," said Indian schoolteacher Mohammed Akram. "Viber is the cheapest way to reach my children ... If they ban it, I would have to go back to talking to my children once a month without seeing them until I visit them," he added.

Saudi students on scholarships who use the Skype video application to contact their parents are also disappointed.

"I really don’t understand what they mean by monitoring. Are they going to tap into the conversations I have with my mother and sister? Does that mean they are going to have to wear the veil when they open the camera for me?" pondered Khalid Tunsi, a finance student in the US. "If they cut off these applications, it will make my life really difficult because with this technology I am able to see my mother every day" ...

WhatsApp is an application that businessmen such as Hani Ayyash use to communicate with his employees and clients for free. "I have created a group for my colleagues and employees, especially when I’m traveling, as I need to be informed about any updates," he said. "Is CITC giving us lower rates after banning free applications that everyone uses?"

The question now is whether the companies concerned will agree to the CITC's demands. There was a similar issue three years ago when the CITC threatened to shut down the BlackBerry Messenger service unless it was given access to codes that would allow monitoring of messages. 

The matter was later resolved, though it is not clear how. The CITC said it was dropping the ban after Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind BlackBerry, met "part" of its regulatory requirements. Some reports suggested the company had caved inand agreed to put a BlackBerry server in the country so that the Saudis could directly access customer data.

Posted by Brian Whitaker
Monday, 25 March 2013