Saudis use sinister surveillance app to inform on female critics
‘People are spying on each other and the government gives rewards sometimes. It is even worse than North Korea’
SAUDI Arabia is using a sinister surveillance app to hunt down female critics of the government, with one dissident claiming the Kingdom is now “worse than North Korea”.
The app, Kollona Amn (We Are All Security), allows users to report suspicious behaviour or lawbreaking to Saudi authorities, with the option to attach pictures and videos. It is available on the Apple and Google Play stores.
In use since 2019, it gained notoriety this week as it emerged that it was used to target Salma Al-Shehab, a PhD student at Leeds University who was jailed for 34 years over tweets criticising the Saudi leadership.
She appears to have been prosecuted after some of her tweets were sent to authorities by a Kollona Amn user, even though her online presence was very small and unassuming.
Those familiar with the app say it is mainly used for reporting minor road offences, and sexual harassment. But human rights activists say Saudis are increasingly using it to report citizens who criticise their rulers online.
“People are spying on each other – the government gives rewards sometimes,” Alia Abutayah Al-Hwaiti, a Saudi activist in exile in London, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“They are watching and monitoring all these tweets – they see the tweet and send it to this app which is actually telling the authorities,” she added.
“So the authorities go and find out who wrote the tweet, seek the IP address... and they go to their home and arrest them. It’s even worse than North Korea.”
A second female activist, Amaha AlHwaiti, has been jailed over criticism of Saudi Arabia’s megacity project NEOM after she was caught by the surveillance app, said Ms Abutyah. “She was criticising the evacuation of her tribe from their land because of the project of NEOM. She was sent to jail for 24 years,” she added.
The app has been downloaded more than a million times on Google Play, suggesting it is used by as many as one in 30 Saudis. The Apple version appears to be less frequently used.
News emerged of Ms Al-Shebab’s jail sentence a few weeks after US President Joe Biden paid a controversial visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss oil production with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Saudi human rights groups said it showed it was a major error for the president to “legitimise” the crown prince, who denies ordering the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, by agreeing to meet him.
“This makes a mockery of the Saudi authorities’ claims of reform for women and of the legal system, and shows that they remain hellbent on harshly punishing anyone who expresses their opinions freely,” Lina Al-Hathloul, the sister of the jailed Saudi feminist activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, said. “Saudi activists warned … giving legitimacy to the crown prince would pave the way for more abuses, which is unfortunately what we are witnessing now.”
In Leeds, where Ms Al-Shehab was studying medicine, students and faculty heads are deeply concerned about her.
“[We] are appalled by the wrongful imprisonment of Salma Al-Shehab. The 34-year sentence she has been given, after a grossly unfair trial, is outrageous,” said the Leeds University branch of Amnesty International.
“We hope that our fellow students will join us in taking action against these violations of human rights.”
The Sunday Telegraph approached Saudi authorities for comment but did not immediately receive a response.