The ruling Al Saud have started trying to shape the online debate with carefully managed social media campaigns in Saudi Arabia.
Participation of tens of thousands of young Saudis in a social media debate over plans to reform the kingdom last month, marked a shift in how Riyadh’s conservative rulers interact with their subjects.
Debate in Saudi had traditionally been strictly regulated by state decree, cultural tradition, in which gender mixing was often illegal.
However, social media had allowed many young Saudis to interact in ways that were impossible before.
Mohammed Alyahya, Saudi analyst and commentator, said that the social media is the most effective way to capture young people’s attention in this age.
“It is a new focus for the government as it reaches out to a young Saudi population that is more likely to use social media,” he said.
One recent showcase was the inauguration of 31-year-old Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed Salman’s Vision 2030 reform plans.
It used Twitter alongside traditional media to build anticipation and introduce hash tags – key discussion phrases.
“A strong and determined country with a connection between the government and the citizen,’’ one of the slogans read.
Some 190,000 Twitter users in Saudi Arabia actively took part in the ensuing debate over Vision 2030, generating more than 860,000 messages according to France-based social media monitor, Semiocast.
This meant the discussion reached 46 per cent of the 7.4 million active Twitter users in the kingdom.
Since 2012, social media storms in Saudi Arabia over government policies or the actions of senior officials had culminated in the sacking of senior people on at least five occasions.
The growing influence of social media became apparent in 2012 when the late King Abdullah sacked the religious Police Chief and replaced him with a relative progressive.
Diya Murra, a Riyadh-based Account Director for a social media agency, “The Online Project’’, said that even ministers without social media accounts invested time and money monitoring what people said about them online.
“People are holding them accountable for things that are being done or not,” he said.
Social media users cut across political and religious lines, and this include both strict Muslim clerics and self-described liberals.
According to iMENA Digital, which serves clients in Saudi Arabia, Twitter is most popular among 18 to 24-year-olds in Saudi Arabia, followed closely by users in their late 20s to early 40s.
It added that photo-sharing site Instagram had become the leading channel among young Saudis with about three-quarters of them women.
However, Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir and other Gulf Arab politicians speaking at a forum said they were in favour of controls to prevent anonymous postings.
They said other users who broke taboos by criticising religion or calling to end monarchical rule should be punished.
