> Since 30 April 2026, Gulf-focused NGOs ALQST for Human Rights and Democratic Diwan, as well as Saudi researcher Abdullah Alaoudh and human rights defender Yahya Assiri, have had their Facebook accounts rendered “unavailable” in Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi government, in a form of “geo-blocking”. Similar restrictions have been imposed in the UAE
Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
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Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#502I'm in the UAE right now. The site www.alqst.org is blocked here. I had to turn on a VPN to read the article. Here, it's not even allowed to read about what's not allowed!
Aren’t you afraid of using a VPN and their being ramifications?
Honestly, I don't think the UAE (or any non-democratic regime) is too concerned about people using VPNs. They are more concerns when they are using VPNs to actively destabilse the ruling regime. There is a huge gap here. I would guess that the vast majority of VPN users use it to (1) watch geo-fenced legit content, like Netflix in a different country, or (2) visit banned websites (gambling, crypto, adult content, etc.). Probably very few users are actively engaged in creating and promoting content to destabilse the ruling regime.
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#503I'm in the UAE right now. The site www.alqst.org is blocked here. I had to turn on a VPN to read the article. Here, it's not even allowed to read about what's not allowed!
Aren’t you afraid of using a VPN and their being ramifications?
Basically everyone in the UAE uses VPNs, the government is OK with this.
They do DPI to interfere with VOIP calling over VPNs though, the purpose being to use phone bills as a yet another hidden tax (which the UAE has a plenty of).
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically any system other than anarchy? In every civilized country I know of if your neighbor kills you then afterwards they'll be on the run from the law, not selling your house on Facebook marketplace the next day.
Anarchism does not mean that no rules or consequences exist in a society.
Anarchism as "an extension of nature" certainly does mean that, as least assuming you've got more guns/muscle than the other guy.
If you want to use a different definition of anarchism that includes a legal system and police force then that's not the kind of anarchism being discussed here.
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
The west is practically fully secular, and they have relegated religion to individualistic practice, so to your point, there aren't any "christian nations". This is on purpose so those in power are able to do whatever they want. They're trying to do the same with Islam, enormous amounts of money are being spent, but Islam has the advantage of an extremely strict and rigorous scholarly heritage and preservation, thank…
I can't tell if you're pro or anti secular government.
I'm pro-Islamic government, one where it is correctly applied, not what we see today in much of the Islamic world (due to many factors, not the least of which is western intervention).
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#506[flagged]
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't tell if you're pro or anti secular government.
I'm pro-Islamic government, one where it is correctly applied, not what we see today in much of the Islamic world (due to many factors, not the least of which is western intervention).
I prefer to not be a subjected by people who believe in fairy tales, but you do you.
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#508Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, I don’t. I remember when the internet would (it did!) and Usenet would (it did!) and irc and open source and the web (they did!) but social media was always about entertainment and (one way or another) monetization of those technologies. It’s the cancer of our collective mind and achievements.
Social media was about staying in touch. Whether that was about your friends and family (Facebook) or your city / neighborhood (Twitter). Algorithmic feeds are what poisoned the well.
Email was about staying in touch. IRC, AIM, ytalk, phone were about staying in touch. Social media was about addicting you and your children for money at any cost to you and your children.
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
My point is they can still influence the US even if they / their money isn’t there. Do you really live in that much of a US-centric bubble where you don’t realise outside influence exists?
>they can still influence the US even if they / their money isn’t there. Sure, but I wager not being in the US means less money. And thus less influence > Do you really live in that much of a US-centric bubble where you don’t realise outside influence exists? Adding any friction to their influence is a good thing, in my eyes.
No, your trillion dollar company invests all its money in offshore companies which just happen to be owned or controlled by you.
Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE
#510Earlier quoted context omitted.
>they can still influence the US even if they / their money isn’t there. Sure, but I wager not being in the US means less money. And thus less influence > Do you really live in that much of a US-centric bubble where you don’t realise outside influence exists? Adding any friction to their influence is a good thing, in my eyes.
No, your trillion dollar company invests all its money in offshore companies which just happen to be owned or controlled by you.
Cool, more american companies to invest in.