Many citizens are still unaware that only the police are authorized to receive reports on crimes related to online harassment, abuse and character assassination.

“We need to emphasize that the police are the sole authority sanctioned to deal with crimes of this nature,” Sultan Al-Malik, the spokesman for the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC), told Arab News.

Al-Malik said, “Police receive the reports and then refer them to an investigative body. The CITC only plays a technical role when asked for assistance.”

However, Saud Al-Katib, an IT professor at King Abdul Aziz University, told Arab News that regulations that penalize IT-related crimes must be enforced.

“The agency receiving these reports must expedite action accordingly. We must distinguish between Internet surveillance, which is impossible to enforce since it is impractical, and the regulations that should govern the behavior of net users, especially that we now have over 10 million users on Facebook and Twitter,” he said.

“Social network sites did not invent bad behavior. They just exposed certain mindsets in society and enabled people to express themselves freely. Some people are prone to swearing or reacting improperly when they see different views expressed on these platforms,” he explained.

The regulations against IT crimes detail the nature of these crimes and impose the regulatory penalties, which include a one-year jail term and/or a SR 500 fine for anyone who illegally accesses a website or infiltrates a website for the purpose of changing the site’s designs, hacking it or deleting content.

In addition, regulations also stipulate a maximum of 10 years in jail or a SR 10 million fine for anyone who establishes a website for terrorist networks that facilitates communication between such organizations and promotes extremist tendencies.

Any content that disrupts general order and public morality or is considered an attack on religious teachings is considered a crime as per regulations.