Earlier this month, the Saudi telecom authority, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), ordered the country's three cellular providers to block the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service, beginning August 6. The body said that the reason was the inability to censor content that users could access with the service,[1] but it emerged from reports on the issue and statements by Saudi officials that security considerations were the main reason.[2] According to the officials, the information sent and received via the BlackBerry Messenger is encrypted and inaccessible to Saudi security and intelligence apparatuses, and thus might be used by terror elements. The information is however accessible to authorities if a country has a server of its own provided by the Canadian manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM); so far, the U.S., Canada, and several European countries have such servers.
On August 6, the Saudi authority granted a 48-hour reprieve so that Saudi cellular providers could reach an agreement with RIM that would allow the service to come into compliance with the CITC regulations; RIM also went to work on providing a server for the country.[3] On August 9, it was reported that the server was now operational, allowing BlackBerry users to continue to use the instant messaging service.[4]
Gulf countries also decided to stop BlackBerry services; the UAE ruled that on October 11 it would stop the instant messaging, email, text message, and browser services, for reasons similar to those of Saudi Arabia. UAE cellular providers announced that they would comply, but that they would try to provide their subscribers with alternative services.[5] In Kuwait, in contrast, the instant messaging service will continue, but following negotiations between the Kuwaiti Communications Ministry and RIM, 3,000 websites with licentious content are to be blocked.[6]
This issue has been extensively covered by the Saudi press, and has sparked reactions in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf. Debate on the issue was mainly over the question of whether security considerations supersedes individual freedom.
The following are several reactions to the issue:
Saudi Interior Ministry: The CITC Is in Charge
The Saudi Interior Ministry, which is responsible for state security, took no position on the decision to stop the Blackberry instant messenger service. Ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki told the Saudi daily Al-Watan: "Messages sent by civilians are not our concern... [stopping the BlackBerry Messenger service] is a matter for the CITC."[7]
Saudi Embassy in the U.S.: It's a Matter of National Security
Nail Al-Jubeir, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Saudi daily Al-Watan in an interview that Saudi Arabia would not back down from its decision to block BlackBerry Messenger because national security is concerned: "The terrorists are fighting with each other to use the [BlackBerry], and we must emphasize that they will absolutely not be able to use it."
In the interview, Al-Jubeir complained that RIM had not yet provided Saudi Arabia with a server that would allow access to Blackberry instant messages: "We [are thought] to be the largest BlackBerry market in the region, and RIM must find a solution. The U.S. can [look at] BlackBerry users' messages via [RIM's] servers, and so can Canada and some European countries. We should have the same right."
He added that Saudi Arabia had been negotiating with RIM on the issue for over a year.[8]
Al-Arabiya Director: Security Considerations Trump Personal Freedom
Al-Arabiya TV director-general 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed justified the efforts to block the BlackBerry Messenger service, saying that since terror elements could use the device, the Saudi government had to come down on the side of civilian security, not personal freedom: "The war broke out over BlackBerry's [instant] messaging service. At first, [it seemed that] the pretext was [preventing access to] licentious websites and maintaining values – until it became clear that the issue was [actually] security. This [instant messaging service] is the only service operating outside the framework of security oversight, regardless of all the explanations given as to why it will be shut down...
"This battle can have only one victor – either freedom or security. Which will you choose? The BlackBerry is a radical manifestation of freedom, allowing anyone to text with anyone else with no one monitoring the secrets and private matters that they text or preventing them [from doing so]. Yet we live in one of the most difficult of times, with regard to terrorism, piracy, rogue regimes, and wide scale, ongoing wars... What terrorists do with the new communications networks in order to carry out their crimes [only increases the danger].
"The security apparatuses say that they save many lives by monitoring [and intercepting dangerous messages], and that this is why they object to the BlackBerry – it is the only popular mobile device that the security apparatuses cannot crack. If you live in Saudi Arabia, which is the country in the world that is most threatened by organizations like Al-Qaeda, or if you live in the UAE, which is on the line of conflict with Iran, security trumps civilian privacy. This is the position of governments that care about their societies' stability and wellbeing under circumstances of continuing war...
"The BlackBerry will not escape oversight in a situation in which security personnel cannot crack the code and enter the manufacturer's servers in order to access the messages and conversations stored on them. The manufacturer, RIM, does not have a convincing argument in its battle with the countries, considering that it allows the security [apparatuses] of Canada, the U.S., and Britain to access [the servers]. [So it cannot] deny this to other governments on grounds of protecting privacy." [9]
Al-Arabiya Deputy Director: It's a Battle against Western Technology
Daoud Al-Shiryan, deputy director-general of Al-Arabiya TV, wrote in the daily Al-Hayat: "...The affair has become broader, and the desire to monitor the users has become a demand to have access to the [BlackBerry] servers, that is, [a demand for] the right to monitor all the users in the world. This way, the Third World countries would have the right to monitor their citizens [living] in the West as well as any visitors in possession of a [BlackBerry] device. Is this conceivable? Can it be allowed? Giving [governments] the right to access files would be a precedent for the company [i.e., RIM], and would allow additional countries [to do the same thing]... This will nullify the entire value of the device and of the technology upon which it is based...
"The battle has assumed a cultural dimension, becoming a struggle between past and future. Some of the Gulf states are [behaving like a person] who has bought a new computer but is using it with an old [operating] system. This battle has revealed that being civilized is a matter of behavior, and not a matter of [having] tall buildings and wide streets... The behavior of some of the Gulf states reveals that they have difficulty relating to modern technology. Shall we capitulate to the lunacy of censorship and security phobias, or face the challenge in a different, civilized manner? The battle is first of all between ourselves and the [modern] telecom technologies – and its outcome has already been determined. Shall we draw the [right] conclusions and go with [the times], or shall we renew the old argument to which we constantly return?" [10]
In another article on the same subject, Al-Shiryan wrote: "The Arab countries have launched a counter-battle to expose [the secrets] that the West has encrypted. Our countries wish to expose the BlackBerry's secrets, and [thus to] have the right to monitor the black box. [They want to] monitor the messages and [know] who is corresponding with whom, and what they are saying. A war has been launched [between the West and the Arab world] over individuals' [right to] privacy: They [i.e., the West] regard our [brand of] privacy as a kind of backwardness, while we believe that their [brand of] privacy helps spread corruption and destruction, and undermines security. They fight against our wives' [right to] keep their faces private, on the grounds that [this custom] incites to extremism and terrorism,[11] while we fight their new technology for the same reasons, and try to delay its advance. Who says we have not launched a culture war against the West?
"The war launched by Al-Qaeda is one way of fighting the West, but it is a haphazard and extreme [sort of] battle. The true battle has begun in other arenas. The new war has been launched in the name of the niqab, the burqa, the BlackBerry, the iPod, and the iPhone. These are the real arenas of battle; it is a war waged by our governments and theirs. It is a real war, even if it is not called [war]. The interesting point is that the Arab governments that have launched [this] struggle with the West are capitalist and moderate governments that are friendly with the West. The governments bearing the banner of this new war do not belong to the axis of evil. Will the struggle become broader and reach more complicated and dangerous stages?"[12]
The BlackBerry Ban Is Unjustified
Saudi columnist 'Adwan Al-Ahmari wrote in the Saudi daily Al-Watan that the ban on using BlackBerry Messenger is a violation of individual freedoms: "My dear Communications and Information Technology Commission: is your ban on BlackBerry Messenger [an act of] censorship [that is really motivated by] security [considerations]? The policy of banning is always the easiest, because an official can always pull it out of the drawer [and use it] without having to think of alternative solutions. BlackBerry Messenger is a tool for expressing [oneself] and communicating [with others]. If there are 750,000 [BlackBerry] users in Saudi Arabia [alone], then there must [also] be hundreds of thousands of Saudis outside the kingdom who use it to share pictures and music files with their families in the homeland.
"Will banning BlackBerry Messenger solve all [our] security problems? Some extremist groups use the Paltalk [chat] program, Facebook, or similar sites and telecom technologies. The commission's excuse is that it is able to monitor the Internet and the [Internet service] providers, while this is not possible with the BlackBerry. But [the truth is that] in both cases, [the commission] cannot always monitor the materials flowing through the social networks.
"There is no argument that many people have abused the BlackBerry [messaging service] to the point of causing harm to others, but they constitute a minority among the entire [population of] users. The security[-oriented] excuses evoked by the commission are unclear. [Moreover,] even if there are a few reasons to ban [BlackBerry Messenger], there are thousands of reasons to permit it. For example, who will reimburse those who recently bought the device? What alternative is there for young people, [members of] the technological generation, [who wish to] maintain social contacts? We refuse to acknowledge [the fact] that the real reason for banning the BlackBerry is that its Messenger service provides users with freedom to criticize, oppose and ridicule [the authorities]..."[13]
A Failure to Understand the Meaning of Democracy
Kuwaiti columnist Dr. Hassan 'Abdallah 'Abbas wrote in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai: "...The [BlackBerry] affair is not about some gadget or other. It has to do with our deep understanding of democracy, with the right of the Arab individual to freedom of expression and information, to transparency, and to individuality. These democratic values are not [implemented] in the Arab region...
"The failure of Arab political circles to understand [the significance of] the BlackBerry [affair] has to do with this. Some officials justify [their opposition to the BlackBerry] by pointing out that years ago, the U.S. itself opposed the BlackBerry because of the secrecy [it enables], and the [U.S.] secret intelligence [services] hacked into [people's accounts]. But even this example is not convincing. There still remains a large difference between us and them, which has to do with the difference between what frightens us and what frightens them. While the American [authorities] are afraid specifically of terrorism and Al-Qaeda, and are concerned for [the security of] the American people... the Arab states are concerned for those in power and their political interests..."[14]
Censorship strips the BlackBerry of its services
Cartoonist: Khaled
Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 10, 2010
Saudi Arabia Closes Peephole Used by Terrorists
Cartoonist: Hajed
Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), August 11, 2010
Endnotes:
[1] Saudi Arabia has about 700,000 BlackBerry users. In the past, the Saudi religious police declared war on this gadget, on the grounds that young people were putting it to "negative uses." Turki Al-Shulail, spokesman for the religious police in Riyadh, announced that anyone making such use of their BlackBerry would be punished according to the provisions of the law. www.islamonline.net, February 8, 2010.
[2] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 4, 2010.
[3] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 8, 10 2010.
[4] 'Okaz (Saudi Arabia), August 9, 2010.
[5] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 2, 2010.
[6] Bahrain's reason for banning the Blackberry, according to its Communications Ministry, is that the gadget was used for unauthorized sharing of information about events in Saudi Arabia that "confused the [Bahraini] public."
[7] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 2, 2010.
[8] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 7, 2010.
[9] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), August 2, 2010.
[10] Al-Hayat (London), August 8, 2010.
[11] This refers to the law passed in several European countries banning the wearing of the niqab.
[12] Al-Hayat (London), August 9, 2010.
[13] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 5, 2010.
[14] Al-Rai (Kuwait), August 8, 2010.
