SAUDI ARABIA WILL NOW PUNISH ONLINE SATIRE WITH FIVE-YEAR JAIL TERM.

[Cattledog]

No wonder Trump loves them.

Saudi Arabia has announced it will punish online satire with jail sentences of up to five years, as the kingdom continues its crackdown on political dissent.

Saudi leaders are treading a fine line between societal reform and political repression, seeking to retain absolute power while modernizing the conservative nation.

In a statement Tuesday, the country’s public prosecutor said any online content that “disrupts public order” would be subject to new punishments, AFP reported.

“Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disrupts public order, religious values and public morals through social media...will be considered a cybercrime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of three million riyals ($800,000),” the tweet said.

The country’s cyber crackdown has raised concerns among human rights groups, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—son and heir to the elderly King Salman and considered the power behind the throne—seeks to maintain the crown's tight control of society.

The government has used broad anti-terror legislation to prosecute dozens of citizens for their online activities, much of it on social media platforms like Twitter. In September 2017, the government asked Saudis to report any social media behavior “harming the state's reputation.”

https://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-will-now-punish-online-satire-five-year-jail-term-1105950?fbclid=IwAR0nG-6zzRS-js-u2BH59Kbg3jL9JgOKUO10UbUm8soBCWWMI9L25atpK2I

[sunonmars]

1. How positively orwellian and Erdogan of them....Trump would love this....

I do despair, countries like this should be punished to high hell by decent countries.

[marylandblue]

4. Authoritarianism is rising worldwide

There might not be any decent countries left soon.

[sunonmars]

5. Then sooner or later, there will have to be a higher level of resistance.

[marylandblue]

6. The time is now, there is no later.

[zipplewrath]

2. With bone saws?

Will one be sliced and diced during that 5 years?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. Always gotta read the fine print.

[spanone]

3. trump is probably eyeing the same tactic

[Solly Mack]

7. I think the "fistfights" are "harming the state's reputation."

Or the interrogations gone wrong or the chokeholds or the rogue operators or the mistakes or the we don't know how - whatever murder and dismemberment is being called today in Saudi Arabia.