Musk’s Twitter free speech promise might be tested in Middle East

DUBAI (Reuters) – Twitter buyer Elon Musk calls himself a free speech absolutist, but that could be put to the test in the Middle East, where critics say authoritarian governments use the platform to track opponents and spread disinformation.

In a region where local media are often controlled by the state, millions of people rely on social media platforms to follow news and express their opinions.

Both Twitter and Facebook showed their potential to influence real-life events during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, when they played an outsized role in social upheaval.

However, many democratic gains were reversed, partly because governments could follow the activities of opponents on social media sites and make arrests if they were criticized.

Marc Owen Jones, author of the forthcoming Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East and an assistant professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, said Twitter had been co-opted by some countries that use it to disseminate propaganda and intimidate activists.

“Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter will simply aggravate the problems we see in the region. It will increase the likelihood that Twitter will be exploited as a tool of surveillance and repression,” he said. “His ‘anything goes’ ideology will play into the hands of authoritarian states to just manipulate Twitter to create fake accounts and to intimidate others under the guise of free speech.”

In 2020, Twitter took down thousands of accounts linked to Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Serbia for either taking directions from the governments or promoting pro-government content.

The year before, Twitter said it had removed nearly 6,000 accounts for being part of a statebacked information operation originating in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab monarchies do not tolerate dissent or public criticism and ban political parties and protests. They and other Arab states use criminal laws, in combination with cybercrime laws, to limit expression online.

Maryam Al-Khawaja, a Bahraini activist who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States and whose father is serving a life sentence for his role in Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement, said Twitter was an effective tool during the 2011 uprising.

But, she said, it quickly became a site where people were targeted.

“Twitter was already rife with harassment issues, and this will only escalate.”

Egyptian authorities have prosecuted activists for social media posts, including human rights defender Hossam Bahgat, who in 2021 was fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (approximately $640 at the time) after accusing the election commission on Twitter of fraud.

Twitter and Facebook have been banned in Iran since 2009 anti-government protests, but millions of Iranians have found ways to bypass state restrictions.

Freelance Iranian journalist Mohammmad Mosaed was detained in 2019 after tweeting about an Internet shutdown during anti-government protests over a rise in fuel prices.

“Knock knock! Hello Free World! I used 42 different [proxy sites] to write this! Millions of Iranians don’t have Internet. Can you hear us?” he tweeted.

Meir Javedanfar, Iranian politics lecturer at Reichman University in Israel, said Twitter should introduce technology that enables Iranians to access the platform without being caught by Iranian authorities.

“Otherwise, no one in Iran really cares who owns Twitter. It makes little difference to them.”