Skype, Viber and WhatsApp Face Ban in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian government has issued a warning that it might be prohibiting the use of Skype, Viber and WhatsApp in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications regulatory body, the Communications and Information Technology Commission, released a statement saying that it would take appropriate actions if these apps do not meet service conditions. However, there was no clarification or explanation from the Commission regarding the official statement.

BlackBerry Banned in 2010

Saudi Arabia had banned the use of BlackBerry in 2010, citing the company’s non-compliance with regulations. After some negotiations, the use of BlackBerry devices was allowed within the country. However, the Canadian company did not disclose what steps they took in order to operate within the country.

The speculation among industry and political analysts is that the prohibition is meant to muzzle these apps and enable the regulatory bodies to read and intercept the messages. This is to make sure that these apps would not be used in organizing anti-government meetings, demonstrations and rallies. This is a direct offshoot of some demonstrations being organized with the use of WhatsApp.

Effect of Possible Ban on Bloggers and Other Netizens

For the country’s bloggers, these threats were met by a tired shug or of mild surprise, as if it took the government that long to react in this manner. In a way, Saudi bloggers and demonstrators were already waiting for this to happen. For them, it would have been completely different if the Internet were shut down in the country.

As an absolute monarchy, Saudi Arabia prohibits protests and demonstrations. However, the country has a relatively young population, with 60 percent of the people being under the age of 30. This demographic also happens to be the most Internet savvy portion of its citizens.

Prominent bloggers and other netizens are not too concerned, even if Skype, WhatsApp and Viber were to be banned. They know that there are other avenues of Internet communicaton which the country would find hard to suppress.