Blacking Dozens of X Accounts: Another Violation Targeting Human Rights Opposition Speech in Saudi Arabia

SANAD Human Rights Organization has received numerous reports and testimonies from Saudi activists, human rights defenders, and opposition figures stating that their accounts on X had been blocked, preventing users inside Saudi Arabia from accessing them. The organization has documented the reported cases and reviewed the associated notices and supporting documents, confirming that the restrictions affected dozens of accounts known for their peaceful human rights, media, and political activities.

According to SANAD’s documentation, the blocked accounts include the organization’s official account, the account of its Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Saeed Al-Ghamdi, Board Member Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, the organization’s official spokesperson Fahad Al-Ghweidi, as well as the accounts of Dr. Saad Al-Faqih, Eng. Nasser Al-Qarni, Dr. Abdullah Al-Odah, political activist Omar bin Abdulaziz Al-Zahrani, Khatt Al-Balda, Prisoners of Conscience, and more than thirty other Saudi activists, opposition figures, and journalists.

X stated that the restriction of these accounts within Saudi Arabia was implemented in response to an official request from the Saudi Public Prosecution, which ordered the blocking of a number of accounts and prevented users inside the Kingdom from accessing them, alleging that they had published content deemed to violate domestic laws.

The measure targeted entire accounts rather than specific posts, effectively blocking all the human rights, political, and media content published by those accounts from audiences inside Saudi Arabia. This raises serious concerns that official requests directed at digital platforms are being used to expand censorship of opposition and human rights discourse and to restrict public access to independent sources of information.

An Extension of Saudi Arabia’s Policy of Repression

The blocking of these accounts cannot be viewed in isolation from the broader human rights environment in Saudi Arabia, where the authorities impose sweeping restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression and rely on broadly worded laws to prosecute dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, academics, and ordinary social media users.

Expressing a critical opinion, calling for reform, discussing the cases of detainees, publishing independent human rights information, or even demanding employment opportunities has become grounds for summonses, arrest, prosecution, and severe prison sentences, including the death penalty. Peaceful critics are frequently charged with offenses such as undermining public order, insulting state institutions, or disseminating information that authorities classify as misleading, without providing precise legal definitions that would prevent the arbitrary expansion of such accusations.

These practices have created a widespread climate of fear and self-censorship, as citizens understand that anything they post, repost, or express online may expose them to prosecution and punishment. As a result, the space for public debate within Saudi Arabia has shrunk dramatically, leaving digital platforms among the few remaining channels through which information and opinions outside the official narrative can still circulate.

In this context, blocking the accounts of activists living outside Saudi Arabia represents an attempt to extend censorship beyond the country’s borders. Although the authorities cannot directly arrest dissidents abroad, they seek to prevent their messages from reaching audiences inside the Kingdom, isolate them from their followers, and undermine their ability to document human rights violations or discuss public policy.

This practice forms part of broader patterns of transnational repression, including the persecution of dissidents abroad, threats against their relatives inside Saudi Arabia, the use of digital surveillance, smear campaigns, and pressure on technology companies to remove content or restrict access to it. Such measures significantly reduce the safe space in which dissidents and human rights defenders can operate, even when they reside in countries that protect freedom of expression.

The targeting of a human rights organization’s account carries particular significance. It goes beyond silencing individuals expressing their opinions and instead targets an organization dedicated to documenting violations, publishing information, communicating with victims and their families, and engaging with international institutions. Blocking SANAD’s account therefore obstructs its human rights work and weakens victims’ ability to bring their grievances to public attention.

Undermining the Public’s Right to Access Information

The consequences of these restrictions extend beyond the affected account holders to all users inside Saudi Arabia who rely on these accounts for independent information about human rights conditions, detainees, court proceedings, and public policy.

Freedom of expression encompasses not only the right to impart information and ideas but also the right of others to seek, receive, and share them. By preventing the public from accessing independent human rights and media sources, the authorities are effectively censoring knowledge itself and limiting citizens’ ability to form opinions and participate in public debate based on diverse sources of information.

This is particularly concerning given the severe restrictions imposed on domestic media and the absence of independent news organizations capable of investigating abuses or holding officials accountable. Human rights and opposition accounts therefore play a crucial role in filling part of this information gap by sharing testimonies from detainees and their families and bringing attention to cases that receive no domestic coverage.

Blocking these accounts strengthens the authorities’ monopoly over the public narrative, weakens opportunities to verify official information, and deprives the public of access to alternative perspectives. It may also hinder communication between victims and human rights organizations, making it more difficult to document cases of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and ill-treatment.

X’s Responsibility

While the Saudi authorities bear primary responsibility for blocking these accounts and restricting freedom of expression, this does not absolve X of its own responsibility when it complies with requests targeting dissidents, activists, and human rights defenders solely because of their peaceful expression.

X is not merely a neutral technical intermediary, nor should it shield itself behind the existence of official requests or broadly worded domestic laws that are repeatedly used to suppress dissent. By enforcing blocking orders, the platform risks becoming an instrument that enables authorities to silence critical voices and further restrict civic space.

X should have independently assessed whether each request complied with the principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality, determining whether it addressed a genuine and specific harm or merely sought to suppress legitimate political and human rights speech. Responding to such requests without transparent and meaningful human rights due diligence effectively makes the platform complicit in undermining freedom of expression.

X’s public commitment to defending free speech loses credibility when its technical infrastructure is used to block dissidents and hide their voices from the public. The platform cannot credibly present itself as a space for open debate while simultaneously facilitating arbitrary government measures targeting peaceful and rights-based expression.

SANAD Condemns the Blocking of the Accounts

SANAD Human Rights Organization strongly condemns the Saudi authorities’ decision to block dozens of human rights, media, and opposition accounts, considering it a direct continuation of the policy of silencing independent voices, shrinking civic space, and persecuting dissidents both inside and outside the Kingdom.

The organization also condemns X’s compliance with these blocking requests without demonstrating that it conducted an independent and adequate human rights assessment. SANAD stresses that compliance with domestic laws should never become a justification for contributing to violations of fundamental rights, particularly when the measures target human rights organizations, human rights defenders, and peaceful political opposition.

SANAD calls on the Saudi authorities to revoke the blocking orders, end the use of domestic legislation to criminalize peaceful criticism, guarantee the public’s right to access diverse information and opinions, and cease all forms of digital and transnational repression against dissidents and activists. The organization also calls on X to urgently review its decisions restricting these accounts and restore access to them within Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, SANAD urges the United Nations, international organizations concerned with freedom of expression and human rights, and technology companies to closely monitor this case, call on the Saudi authorities to end restrictions on the digital space, and press social media companies to adopt stronger safeguards against politically motivated blocking requests.

The organization emphasizes that protecting freedom of expression in the digital sphere is a shared responsibility. Any cooperation between governments and technology companies that results in silencing dissidents and human rights defenders constitutes a serious threat to fundamental rights and freedoms. When platforms that are meant to facilitate the free exchange of ideas become instruments of government censorship, repression expands, victims are deprived of the ability to make their voices heard, and society is denied access to an essential part of the truth.