Freedom of Expression without Censorship at Twitter in Saudi Arabia

This report explores the role of Twitter as a platform for freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, examining its impact on political discourse, news dissemination, and the spread of both real and fake news. The study investigates how Twitter has become a significant source of information for the Saudi population and its effectiveness as a vehicle for political communication. It also addresses concerns about censorship, the reliability of information shared on the platform, and the challenges of verifying sources. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining literature reviews with surveys to assess public perception and analyze the influence of Twitter on democratic governance in the Saudi Arabian context. The report also considers ethical implications and methodological challenges in studying social media's role in shaping political expression.

Freedom of Expression for all without censorship and fetters at Twitter
Introduction
The fourth generation of the industrial revolution has laid its emphasis on IT technology. This is
why most of the regular solutions or industries are finding digital methods to change their
operations. The industry of Media is not an exception. At the turn of this century, media was
exclusive in many ways, strong censorship over the content was in practice. Government sector
and social engineers appointed by the watchdogs of the society were able to control the flow of
the messages on the merit of their positive or negative impacts on society.
Digitization of the media and personalization of the telecast mediums made it more prolific by
removing the entry barriers. However, removal of the entry barriers has also removed the
censorship barriers up to a great extent. This is why most of the social engineers and thinkers
very easily make this statement that "the new media environment that exists today is highly
dynamic and continues to evolve in innovative ways. This innovation often brings in some
unpredictable outcomes and some of these outcomes also bring in serious repercussion for the
society by deteriorating the trustworthiness of the institutions that are responsible for the
upholding of democracy and political governance.
The impact of new media can be seen in some key areas related to democracy, governance and
mass participation in the processes of democracy. It changed the communication methods of
social and political leaders. It changed the methods and practices that ensure citizen engagement.
As a result, the methods of the operation for the government agencies also changed.
This changeover in the mediums also forced the messengers to the change the content of the
messages. One such segment is “ New Political Media.”

While defining the “ New Political media" we can have a glance on communication methods
used by the political leaders in order to construct, propagate and exchange the political content
through various channels. During the last two decades "New Political media" has developed
various innovative types of network to communicate and win the association of the masses for
the political agendas. The formation of these networks made it a rapid exercise which is full of
wide-ranging implications for the preservation of democracy and political practices.
Newly evolved methods also changed the roles and responsibilities of political media
journalists across the world. Prior to the arrival of the internet and social media, conventional
mass mediums like newspapers, shows broadcasted on radio and television were playing a
pivotal role. With the arrival of the internet, these mediums cohabited new methods. This caused
an implication of rapid technological advancement and innovation.
Under the process of the evolution of "new political media" conventional media
continued with their steady formats, with a few changes. At the same time, the unconventional
media or the internet-driven media took the support of Personal blogs, informative and
interactive websites and the social media platforms. The next generation of this evolution came
in the form or digital applications and collaborative online platforms.
Out of these so many mediums, social networking sites and digital spaces have emerged
as the most popular venue among the masses. This popularity helped them in gaining a command
over the ways in which democratic governance is running its operations in various parts of the
world. Under the current research program, we are exploring the methods and the ways in which
new realms of the social media are helping the local residents of Saudi Arabia to practice their
fundamental rights associated with the freedom of expression. While conducting this study our
main focus will be on a very popular social media platform which is Twitter. Here we will

explore a few facts related to its effectiveness in spreading the actual political news and fake
news pieces.
Research Question
The following are the research questions which the current study proposes to answer.
1. Why and how Twitter has recently become an important source of information and news
for the masses of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
2. How Twitter has become an effective vehicle to propagate both fake and real news at the
same time?
3. Can we say that conventional media is losing its reliability in the Gulf nations?
4. What is the reliability quotient of no-fetter mechanism? Is it allowing people to publish
news pieces without any restriction? Is it supporting the culture of posting a piece of
news at a mass medium without the verification of the facts and the source (person)?
Research Context
Twitter is a very powerful digital social medium with a wide and fast global reach. A research
data published in the year 2016 gives us an idea that 79 percent of the user belonging to Twitter
were residing outside the USA. This page was receiving roughly 310 million visits per month.
On exploring further we also come to know that Twitter is already attracting one billion unique
monthly visits at the main page and the websites that are part of this network. The demographic
reach of these websites covers 40 official languages and 40 countries of the world (Iqbal, 2019).

A systematic literature review related to its presence in the scenario of new political media gives
us an idea that Twitter has emerged as a major tool in the field of election-related
communications and campaigning. A considerable amount of research studies are also available
where they checked it upon the merits and demerits of fake news and real news.
With the help of the current study, we wish to join the league of these studies where our main
focus area will be Saudi Arabia.
Literature Review
Social media platforms like Twitter are emerging as a personal broadcast medium for
individuals. The easy availability of the internet has removed most of the barriers caused by the
regular or conventional broadcast mediums very effectively.
As a social media website, Twitter is also working as a low-cost telecast medium for marketing
companies. This medium has this added advantage of keeping a record of the visitors so that a
company can check the effectiveness of the media campaign. It also allows them to interact with
their customers and listen to their feedbacks at a very low cost.
The feature of re-tweeting, reposting, and sharing allows the company to spread its
messages even more rapidly. It can also reach up to the levels where it can become viral content.
This re-broadcasting also makes it a fruitful exercise for the marketing companies because their
efforts in social media become an investment rather than an expenditure (Assaad & Gomez,
2011).
“The diversity of content disseminated by new media has created opportunities such as
the ability for more voices to be heard (Owen, 2017).” The complexity of this statement can be
deciphered with the help of an example. The campaigns of US presidential elections followed by

the results allow the market forces to understand the sentiments of the market well. (Michaelson,
1999). They apply the experience gained in the consumer markets into the poll campaigns and
this helps the marketers in understanding the behavior patterns of the masses. Most of the studies
conducted to understand the effectiveness of the mediums during 2012 US presidential elections
gives us an idea that social media platforms have become the mainstay for the advertisers and the
promoters.
Scholars at the MIT Press conducted a study; this study reveals that Twitter is the fastest
medium if anyone wants to spread false news. It statistically confirms that the margin between
the spread of fake news and true news is high on Twitter and it supports fake news more
vehemently (Dizikes, 2018). This fact can also be explained with the help of the social learning
theories as well. We can quantify the social media uses of the individuals and check their
inclination towards political news.
Apart from the news, social media platforms are also serving as a big data platform for
the researchers working in the direction of political science and democratic governance. The
presence of Twitter has added many dimensions in these studies. When we define the
communications that take place in Social media, then we can have a look at the components and
their functioning.
In normal cases, social media exchange user-generated data with the help of mass-
mediated communications. User-generated communication applications guide this data in various
channels and pipelines where personal communications along with the mass messages travel in a
single medium to support the research and other operations. (Rojas and Velasquez, 2017).

While studying the impact of Twitter and other social mediums, we cannot negate Media
Intrusion theory, this theory says that mass media has taken over the political systems of the
society. An impressive projection on a mass medium can become a key for the success of
political parties and other aspirants. This practice has the potential to change a few things in the
political systems and sabotage a few things in the greater interest of democracy. This practice has
changed the definition of Informational journalism, as it is not perceived as "comprehensive,
accurate, and scrupulously fair and politically balanced (Hochheimer and Chafee, 1985),” the
absence of these virtues are posing a serious threat and hampering the justified and productive
functioning of the democracy in a nation (Bucy, 2003).
The barrier of the language has become a thing of past because powerful and intelligent
translation tools are available on the internet. Google translator is the most poignant example. It
can translate more than 120 languages and help an individual in connecting at a global level
without paying any extra price or hard work. English can be termed as the most powerful
language in this regard because it is the native language of the internet and the maximum number
of tools is available in English (Beale, 2003).
Methodology
The current study would be a Mix study where we will apply both qualitative and
quantitative tools with equal alacrity. A systematic literature review on the subject of the uses of
Twitter in Saudi Arabia will help us in reshaping our question. We will start it as inductive
research, however, in the second phase of the research we will come up with some deductive
tools, like Likert’s scale and others to specify the studies for Saudi Arabia. This type of a

research structure is also known as action research or the loop based research structure, under
this structure a researcher can create a loop in between prior to move to the next level. In our
case, we will conduct a literature review with an intention to support our primary research
program. This loop based structure will help us in building a premise for the primary research
where we will be able to carry forward the legacy of the past research programs.
It is a contemporary subject that we are dealing with; this is why plenty of qualitative data is
available to answer the question that we are raising. However, we will try to reconfirm some of
the findings by conducting small surveys based on the simple average and median calculation.
Most of our surveys will try to judge the perception of the people about the question that we are
going to answer in the main research. We are expecting a high margin of the errors because
setting up proper demography for the users is difficult here. It also means that the location of the
respondent can act as a variable in our findings. In order to keep the sample population in a
balance, we will entertain all age groups to increase the spectrum of our findings.
We will further calculate the margins of the error and then generalize our primary data based
findings. After this generalization, we will compare them with some secondary data sources to
figure out the final results. The presence of the secondary research will help us in directing our
primary research and the discussion part of our research report will serve as the confluence part
for both the streams.
Ethical considerations
While conducting this research we will get access to both primary and secondary data.
Considering this fact we have set a rulebook of ethical considerations that goes asunder.

 While taking the permission of using the data from any secondary source we will make
sure to obtain proper No objection certificates from the original authors.
 The No objection certificate obtained from the secondary data users will bind us, not to
use the data for the commercial purposes without their proper permission.
 We will ensure to give due credits to the sources that will inspire us during the course of
this research program.
 While collecting the primary data we are duty bound to secure the privacy of the subjects
that are giving their inputs to us.
 We will not sell this data for any third party use and it will be kept safe, under the
industry best safety solutions.
 While writing this report we will make sure that we are not challenging the integrity of
any organization or blaming any individual.
 The scope of this research will confine to number driven deductive solutions and no
individual cases will be discussed.
 We will make sure to avoid the cases that are under legal purview.

References
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Dizikes, P. (2018, March 08). Study: On Twitter, false news travels faster than true stories.
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