Twitter: A chaotic parliament
Is the new social media a reliable source for information? While most of us are happy that people from all over the world finally have the resources to express their thoughts, ideals and daily events with everyone else, like many things in this world, there are no actions without consequences, and we can’t protect social media from the radicals and extremists who are doing their very best to influence people with hate speech and extremism.
The Saudi social media is a fine example; many have employed social media to advertise their businesses or some make ‘constructive’ criticisms against governmental offices hoping to galvanize them into action, which will eventually make citizens’ lives much easier. For instance, the story of the family who used to live in the graveyard because they couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore; after their story spread throughout social media, the Waleed Bin Talal Charity Foundation provided them with a new home.
Another story involved a convicted man, Abdullah Al-Shammery who was recently executed after he was found guilty of killing another man, many people managed to help his family by collecting money and providing them with SR 500, 000 to help them carry on. These are but a couple of examples of many stories that show how social media has helped Saudi citizens one way or another.
The anonymous accounts are another story; according to Saudi security reports, more than 6,000 anonymous or fake accounts are created to spread lies, insults and hate throughout Twitter in the hope of promoting animosity and spreading intolerance against the Saudi government in the minds of young Saudi citizens. Extremists, under anonymous accounts, campaign against women working in shops, stand against students traveling abroad for higher education, because that would make them westernized, and try hard to fight against any governmental decision that may benefit the young generation, on the basis of radical thoughts. One wonders if such voices were given real authority in the real world what kind of society would we have?
One also wonders, how strong of an impact do these radical anonymous accounts actually have on young Saudis? This is a frightening question yet it needs to be addressed and dealt with based on statistics and reasoning. It needs to be addressed with enlightenment and an official mass campaign to explain to young Saudis the truth about these fake accounts and their radical goals behind their never ending lies. And if this continues to be neglected, it may, with time, find a large welcoming crowd to embrace their ideology.
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