DOWNLOAD
CONTENTS
SUMMARY
RECOMMENDATIONS
ORDER THIS REPORT
Encryption and Human
Rights
HRW HOME
Bahrain
Iraq
Jordan
Morocco
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Tunisia
United Arab
Emirates
|
In January 1999, Saudi Arabia began allowing its
public to access the Internet through local service providers. It
did so while promising to implement what would be the region's most
ambitious plan to block the flow of "undesirable" data
online.
Saudi Arabia has had an Internet connection
since 1994, but restricted its use to state academic, medical, and
research institutions. Saudi citizens and residents were free,
however, to purchase computers and modems, could connect to the
Internet through dial-up service to foreign ISPs, and launch web
sites on foreign servers. But international calls to ISPs were
expensive: to Bahrain the charge was U.S. $0.60-0.80 per minute,
and to the U.S. and Europe $1.70-$2.10 per minute. Still, according
to one estimate, some 30,000 Saudis were accessing the Internet in
this fashion.
(99)
The Saudi public could also subscribe to local networks such as
al-Naseej (<www.naseej.com.sa>), which provided domestic and
international e-mail, links to domestic databases and "chat rooms"
for its own subscribers--but no access to the World Wide
Web.
Although state institutions were first connected
to the Internet in 1994 and King Fahd had approved public Internet
access in 1997, it was not until January 1999 that local ISPs began
connecting ordinary citizens. This delay was due in large part to
the self-proclaimed determination of authorities to establish a
system for controlling the flow of information online.
Officials of the Saudi government and the King
Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST)--the
Riyadh-based state institution charged with coordinating Internet
policy--declined to respond to repeated written, phone, and e-mail
invitations from Human Rights Watch to provide information.
However, they made their intention to exercise control over
Internet content clear in numerous press interviews. Saleh
Abdulrahman Al-'Adhel, president of the KACST, said in February
1998:
A standing committee has been formed and
approved by the government to protect society from material on the
Internet that violates Islam or encroaches on our traditions and
culture. This committee will determine which sites are immoral,
such as pornographic sites and others, and will bar subscribers
from entering such sites. There are many bad things on Internet.
That is why we have created a mechanism to prevent such things from
reaching our society so that a home subscriber to this service can
be reassured. We have programs, software, and hardware that prevent
the entry of material that corrupts or that harms our Muslim
values, tradition, and culture. We also created a "fire wall" or
barrier to prevent other quarters from breaching our sites. That is
why we have not rushed into providing this service. We first want
to make sure we eliminate all negative aspects of the
Internet.
(100)
That objective was endorsed early on by Saudi
Arabia's Council of Ministers when it called for a fire wall,
maintained by the KACST, to keep the public from accessing
"inappropriate" information.
(101)
The council also prepared a set of broad and vaguely defined
restrictions on Internet content and usage. Its Decision number
163, made public in May 1998, requires ISPs and users to refrain
from "using the network for illegitimate purposes such as, for
example, pornography and gambling;...carrying out any activities
violating the social, cultural, political, media, economic, and
religious values of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; sending or
receiving coded information unless after obtaining the necessary
licenses from the administration of the network in question; [and]
introducing others into the usage accounts or briefing them on the
secret number of the user."
(102)
Authorities have divulged few details of the
technical means and criteria used to block content. According to
one press report, "Industry insiders claim King Abdul-Aziz City for
Science and Technology will simply provide a list of desirable
sites, officially sanctioned by an internal committee. All other
sites will be banned by default. In other words, the user will not
be able to type in the URL of any site that he/she wants to visit,
but rather only be able to pick from an officially sanctioned
list."
(103)
If accurate, this would be the world's most restrictive regime of
web-site filtering. The London-based daily Al-Sharq
al-Awsat reported that the Saudis planned to contract with
U.S. firms to bolster their censorship efforts by furnishing on a
continuous basis the addresses of web sites deemed
offensive.
(104)
Saudi Arabia allows private ISPs. In November
1998 the government approved applications from some forty companies
seeking to provide Internet services. However, all ISPs operating
in the Kingdom are to be linked to a main server at the KACST,
which has the country's sole gateway to the World Wide Web.
(105)
This structure would certainly facilitate any possible efforts by
the government to monitor and limit Internet use and
content.
Two months after local ISPs began offering
access, Al-'Adhel affirmed that the KACST was "blocking undesirable
web sites" by using what he called "very fast computer programs."
He denied that the KACST had prohibited any applications, such as
chat services--"unless [they were] linked to pornographic
sites."
(106)
Although official explanations of content
filtering have focused on materials deemed offensive to
conservative Muslim sensibilities, Saudi blocking apparently
extends to political sites. In early 1999, the site of at least one
exiled dissident group, the Committee against Corruption in Saudi
Arabia (<www.saudhouse. com>), was reportedly
blocked.
Users who attempt to access banned sites
reportedly receive warnings on their computer screens that their
access attempts are being logged.
(107)
Saudi authorities have also tried to thwart user efforts to
circumvent censorship. The URL of a popular web-based
anti-censorship proxy server, Osiris, is blocked in the Kingdom,
along with at least three "mirror" sites, according to Brian
Ristuccia, who manages the site.
(108)
And a web site offering anonymizing services, <www.anonymizer.
com>, is also blocked, according to the company's president,
Lance Cottrell.
(109)
The pricing structure for Internet accounts that
was announced by the KACST for ISP charges appears moderate to
high, depending on whether the ISPs choose to offer rates closer to
the low or high end of the permissible range set by the KACST.
Saudi newspapers on November 10, 1999 quoted KACST officials saying
they had agreed to a minimum ISP charge of 1.5 riyals an hour (1
riyal equals U.S.$0.27) and a maximum of 4.5 riyals, along with a
fixed monthly charge of between 100 and 150 riyals. An additional
dial-up charge of 4.5 riyals per hour would be paid to Saudi
Telecom.
(110)
(Saudi Telecom is a state monopoly, although the first steps toward
privatizing it were taken in 1998.) Thus, a light user, one who
spends five hours online per month, would pay a monthly rate of
between U.S. $36-$44.
99. "Saudi Arabia
ready to cruise the information superhighway," Agence
France-Presse, July 15, 1998.
100. Quoted in
'Ukaz newspaper, February 24, 1998, as reported in FBIS,
February 27, 1998.
101. The Mosaic
Group, The Global Diffusion of the Internet Project: An Initial
Inductive Study, March 1998, p. 216, or
<www.agsd.com/gdi97/gdi97.html>. An updated version, dated
February 1999, of the Inductive Study's chapter on Saudi
Arabia can be found at <www.agsd.com/gdiff/gdiff4>. The term
"fire wall" connotes various tools that restrict users' access to
online data, either in proprietary sites or on the Internet. It can
be set up as a security device to prevent unauthorized access to
computer systems or as a censorship device to block user access to
online materials that a government or fire-wall operator seeks to
place off-limits.
102. Quoted in
Al-Jazira newspaper, May 6, 1998, as reported in FBIS, May
12, 1998.
103. IT
News, November 4, 1998, <www.ditnet.co.ae/html/newsnov/
newsnov0198.html>.
104. "Internet
Service in the Arab World," Al-Sharq al-Awsat, October 4,
1998, as reported in FBIS, October 29, 1998.
105. The
regulations on ISPs forbid them from establishing any linkage to
the Internet except via the KACST. The rules were published in the
May 6, 1998 al-Jazira daily, as reported in FBIS, May 12,
1998.
106. Nasser
Salih al-Sarami, "Problems and Possibilities; Internet in the
Kingdom," Saudi Gazette, March 13, 1999.
107. Jehl, "The
Internet's 'Open Sesame,'" New York Times.
108. E-mail
communication from Brian Ristuccia to Human Rights Watch, January
7, 1999 and March 11, 1999.
109. Cottrell,
"Commercial Anonymity."
110. "Saudi
Sets Limits to Internet Provider Charges," Reuters, November 10, 1998.
|
Loading...
Riyadh,
the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at
night.
