Saudi Arabia warns Snapchat users that ‘insulting’ regime is a criminal offense

Saudi state media issued an explicit warning that it is a criminal offense to “insult” authorities using social media apps such as Snapchat, the California-based messaging app whose chief executive recently forged a new “cooperation” deal with the kingdom’s culture ministry.

The threat – which was originally televised in April and then deleted – has gained new resonance as more cases emerge in which Snapchat users and influencers in the kingdom have been arrested by authorities and, in some cases, sentenced to decades-long prison sentences.

Snapchat is a social media app that lets users communicate and easily send messages and photographs. On its website, the company says it “contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves”. Its ties to the kingdom date back to 2018, when Saudi financier Prince Alwaleed bin Talal invested $250m in the company, a 2.3% stake.

Saudi court documents examined by the Guardian suggest that at least one Saudi Snapchat user, Manahel al-Otaibi, was arrested late last year after posting a picture privately on Snapchat that showed her not wearing an abaya, leading to charges that she was dressed indecently. It is not clear how Saudi authorities accessed the picture.

Related: Saudi Arabian woman arrested over Twitter and Snapchat posts promoting reform

In another case, Saudi Snapchat influencer Mansour Al-Raqiba, who has more than 2 million followers, was arrested in May 2022 in connection to his social media posts in which he suggested he had previously criticised Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 economic plan for the kingdom and had been blackmailed as a result. A person familiar with the case said Raqiba had been sentenced to 27 years in jail.

In another recent case, Snapchat influencer Rahaf Al-Qahtani’s was reportedly arrested after posting comments that were deemed offensive to the people of the Maldives, allegedly running afoul of a Saudi law that prohibits individuals from damaging Saudi relations with its allies.

Some Saudi dissidents have privately expressed concerns about the privacy of Snapchat content in the kingdom. The company’s website states that it may “at its discretion” provide Snapchat account records to law enforcement and governmental agencies outside the US in response to a legal process that is authorised in the requesting country if the request is not related to content, such as “basic subscriber information” and “IP data”.

The stark warning for Saudi social media users came in April when state-run media interviewed a man who was in jail for posting a single apparently innocent tweet that was considered a criticism of the kingdom, and therefore illegal.

The news segment was recorded and reposted by human rights group ALQST after it was removed by the broadcaster.

Saudis dissidents living outside the kingdom said the segment represented a clear warning to viewers to refrain from posting any criticism or comment that could be construed as an insult. In it, the imprisoned man, shown in silhouette, describes how he regrets posting a tweet that was insulting, and explains how others are also in jail for tweeting, both under their own names and using anonymous accounts.

The presenter of the segment then thanks the imprisoned man for his candor and help in educating people about so-called “cybercrimes”. He said: “Most of those seeing you will probably have an account on Twitter or an account on Snapchat or so on, so maybe they will see your case and pray for you that almighty god will bring about your release … because you have made them aware.”

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is due to visit the kingdom this week, but it is not clear whether he will raise human rights issues, including the plight of several American citizens, including Saad Ibrahim Almadi, who are currently in jail or facing a travel ban for alleged crimes, including use of Twitter and other social media to criticise the kingdom.

A US government spokesperson said in response to a question from the Guardian that universal human rights and the rule of law were a pillar of US engagements with partners around the world.

But Abdullah Alaoudh, Saudi director of the Freedom Initiative, which advocates for the rights of detainees in the Middle East and north Africa, said he believed the Biden administration’s lack of attention to the issue helps explain the worsening human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, including “unprecedented level of executions and arrest of people over social media use”.

A Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian: “We uphold and respect the value of universal human rights and our goal is to serve our community, enabling them to unleash their creativity and broaden their understanding of the world.”

The company also denied it had received a request for private user data from the Saudi government in connection to Otaibi’s case and said it had not shared private user data with the Saudi government.

The CEO of Snap Inc, Evan Spiegel, was in Riyadh in December 2022 when he signed a “joint cooperation agreement” with Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Saudi culture minister, to help “build bridges” with Saudi’s cultural sector.

A recent story in the state-sponsored Arab News quoted Abdulla Alhammadi, Snapchat’s regional business lead for the kingdom, saying that the social media app had more than 22 million users in the kingdom who open the app nearly 50 times each day. Alhammadi called the statistic “heartwarming”.