BY MOST counts the Gulf region has the highest penetration of smartphones in the world. WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter have become standard modes of communication. Nowhere is this more so than in Saudi Arabia. Several surveys in 2013 showed that the kingdom has the world’s highest percentage of people on Twitter relative to its number of internet users; and on YouTube, too. Saudis also spend more hours online than their peers elsewhere. That might seem surprising for such a conservative country where the constitution is said to be taken directly from the Koran and where women are not permitted to drive. Why are Saudis such big fans of social media?
Outsiders often regard the 30 million Saudis as far behind the rest of the world. The modern Saudi state was founded only in 1932, and then on the basis of an existing pact between the Al Saud family and the Wahhabist clerics, who peddle a particularly red-hot version of Islam. It is certainly a traditional place, especially around the capital Riyadh. But the country has also rapidly modernised since discovering its vast oil wealth. It has a GDP per capita of almost $26,000. Today thousands of its young people study abroad, speak English and are as globalised as their peers in other countries. Fully 75% of the population are under 30. They have grown up thinking it normal to go online to do everything from ordering a coffee to watching TV.
It is the wedding of these factors to Saudi Arabia’s social peculiarities that may account for its topping of the virtual rankings. Shopping malls are pretty much the only source of entertainment for young people, because the clerics dislike cinemas and bars. So mingling with friends on social media has obvious appeal, not least because it is illegal for unrelated men and women to fraternise in person. Facebook has become a way of picking up a date (previously, many young people would turn on Bluetooth and search for random connections nearby). Frustrated Saudis can also vent about the government anonymously on Twitter. But social media is not just used for getting up to naughty things. The country’s most popular Twitter account, with more than 14 million followers, is that of Muhammad al-Arefe, a Saudi cleric—and not a particularly liberal one, either.
Saudi rulers make occasional attempts to close down social media or to criminalise things said in cyberspace—often with harsh punishments. Clerics, including salafist-jihadists, use the internet and social-media apps to spread their message to the vast swathe of the population that is devout and, as such, potentially susceptible to their ideas. But it is impossible to stem enthusiasm for all things online. On the whole, most observers reckon social media is more of a force for liberalisation. And there is no sign that the appetite for it is slowing. Saudis are becoming creators as well as consumers of social media content and services. Saudi entrepreneurs, especially in the more relaxed Red Sea city of Jeddah, are launching apps and YouTube channels. Whatever the position of Saudis in the real world, they are fully integrated in the virtual one.
