Twitter Suspends Women’s Rights Group After Criticizing Saudi Arabia

FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images
FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images
Charlie Nash

Twitter is accused of suspending accounts that engaged in the #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen hashtag, including a self-proclaimed non-profit Saudi female empowerment organization, S.A.F.E Movement.

The hashtag, which started to successfully trend on Tuesday, aimed to protest the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia, and quickly took off, with various verified accounts also joining in.

After reaching Twitter’s trending section, podcast host Lalo Dagach reported that the official account for the female empowerment non-profit, S.A.F.E Movement, had been suspended, allegedly in part due to “Saudi men spamming reports.”

https://twitter.com/LaloDagach/status/778333686248968192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/LaloDagach/status/778627786806263808

Soon after, other accounts were reported to have been suspended for joining in with the hashtag, including S.A.F.E’s director Isaac Cohen.

The suspensions caused a huge backlash, with many people questioning whether Twitter’s links to Saudi Arabia had anything to do with the censorship.

https://twitter.com/CatlinNya/status/778327175787343872

https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/778447262691102720

Last year, Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud became Twitter’s second largest shareholder, owning a total of 34.9 million shares, or 5.2% of the company—2 per cent more than Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey also met with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in June as part of the Prince’s New York visit, where Salman also met Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Both accounts have since been reactivated, however Twitter has yet to comment on the reasons as to why they were suspended in the first place.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.

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