Freedom of Expression Without Fetters: Twitter in Saudi Arabia

This report investigates the evolving role of Twitter as a platform for political communication and the exercise of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. It explores how the platform is used to disseminate political news, including the challenges posed by the spread of fake news. The study examines the impact of Twitter on democratic governance, considering the potential for both positive and negative effects. The research employs a quantitative methodology, incorporating surveys and secondary data analysis to address key research questions. The report also reviews relevant communication theories, such as media intrusion theory and social learning theory, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. It also highlights potential ethical considerations and suggests future research directions, particularly concerning the spread of misinformation and the role of cybersecurity in mitigating its impact. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for caution and proactive measures from government, security agencies, and social media platforms to curb the spread of fake news.

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Freedom of Expression without fetters at Twitter
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Freedom of Expression without fetters at Twitter
Introduction
The new media environment that exists today is highly dynamic and continues to evolve
in innovative and unpredictable ways, which reflects serious repercussions in relation to
upholding democracy and political governance. New media have dramatically changed the ways
in which various government institutions across the globe operate, the ways in which political
leaders communicate with the world and the myriad ways in which citizen engagement takes
place. The new forms of communication have developed very rapidly, specifically during the last
three decades, and continue to evolve in innovative ways which are often unpredictable in nature.
New media have several wide-ranging implications for preservation of democracy and political
practices.
Digital spaces, particularly few of the popular social networking sites, have become all-
pervasive in nature and are also commanding a great deal of influence on the ways in which
democratic governance is happening around the world. With this backdrop, the current study
proposes to investigate the ways in which the new media realm of Saudi Arabia and its people
are making use of their fundamental right of freedom of expression through the social media
platform – Twitter, for propagating political news as well as also a lot of fake news.
Research Question

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1. Why has Twitter recently become an important source for the masses in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia to propagate political news and spread out fake news?
2. Is there a lack of reliability in the traditional media in the Gulf nations?
3. Is the no-fetter mechanism or system of Twitter allowing people to publish news without any
form of restriction, and even without any form of verification of the person posting such news.
Research Context
The popularity of Twitter as a global digital social media platform is indisputable.
According to some statistics dating to the year 2016, 79% of Twitter’s users reside outside of the
United States, with roughly about 310 million active users every month. This makes Twitter
record a billion unique monthly visits to various websites that are connected to the social media
platform, with content being made available in more than 40 different global languages. is
available in over 40 languages (Iqbal, 2019). There are countless number of notable studies on
political communication surrounding Twitter, with the focus being investigation of the use of
Twitter for election-related communication or campaigning. The current study would serve as an
addition to such research which already exists about people using Twitter for political
communication.
Literature Review
Social media platform is one that is accessible to just about anyone needing just an
internet connection and a user id to access the social media site. Social media sites and blogs
very often have a common feature of allowing their individual members to “re-tweet” or “re-

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post” comments and this is also applicable to the comments made by the products that are being
promoted. By re-broadcasting the message as is, all of the members in the users’ network or
circle of friends and their “connections” are able to see exactly the same message and
communication, hence reaching a much larger audience. Social media sites hence act as an
effective medium for creating word of mouth rapidly. As the message about the service / product
is repeated and shared and is getting repeated more and more, traffic is directed to the company
and its products (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).” A classic example for this the American
Presidential Elections. These polls that occur once every four years not only elect the World’s
most powerful person but, also extends the imagination of marketers, in ensuring that the
respective campaign teams go all out and do everything possible to catch the positive attention of
the voters and in creating a positive impact on their minds (Michaelson, 1999). In the American
Presidential elections 2012 edition, it was the social media that had become the mainstay of
campaigning since the time campaigning activities were commenced.
There has also been a new study that was conducted by scholars at the MIT Press that
revealed that false news spreads very rapidly on Twitter when compared to any other social
media platform. The margin between the propagation of real news and false news through
Twitter is substantially high (Dizikes, 2018). The social learning theory is one important theory
that helps in understanding the social media usage in political communication. Social
interaction plays a pivotal role in learning.
The contemporary era’s use of social media platforms like Twitter for the purpose of
political communication and expression has actually added a new dimension to the study of

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political science and democratic governance. The communication that gets exchange on social
media is essentially user-generated and various methods of communication models like mass-
mediated communication, user-generated communication applications, and interpersonal
communication come together and present themselves through a single medium, which is social
media (Rojas and Velasquez, 2017).
Media Intrusion theory is another theory under the mass communication theories that is
quite relevant in the context of the current study. According to this theory, the mass media has
completely taken over the political system of the society. Informational journalism, as it is not
perceived as "comprehensive, accurate, and scrupulously fair and politically balanced
(Hochheimer and Chafee, 1985)," poses a serious threat to the effective and productive
functioning of the democracy in a nation (Bucy, 2003).
Today, technology like Google is universally available, which could translate from
English to any other language and even vice-e-versa, at a click of a button English being the
native language for computers, has had the first-mover advantage and has possibly the largest
tools like dictionaries and thesaurus, among others, that are available online as learning aides.
This may not be available as extensively in any other language because the number of users
could itself be limited (Beale, 2003).
Methodology
The research study for understanding the causal agent for the emerging importance of the
media source, Twitter in Saudi Arabia will be conducted with the incorporation of quantitative
method. The quantitative method emphasizes on the utilization of mathematical, numeric and/or

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statistical analysis from the data and information collected by the questionnaires, surveys, polls
and/or utilizing the existent statistical information with the association of computational tools
and techniques. The researcher aims to gather sufficient information in relation to the chosen
research topic and also information in support of the research questions framed above. The data
deduced from conducting quantitative research will be focused on converting the data and
information for deducing a general sense for a specific phenomenon, in this case the popularity
and misuse of the media sources.
Sum-up
New media have dramatically changed the ways in which various government institutions
across the globe operate, the ways in which political leaders communicate with the world, the
ways in which polls are conducted, and the myriad ways in which citizen engagement takes
place. This novel evolution has dramatically altered the political media system while also
redefining the role played by journalist’s world over. New media have several wide-ranging
implications for preservation of democracy and political practices. The current study aims to
investigate the use of one of the social media platforms – Twitter, by the people of Saudi Arabia
for propagating political news in addition to also propagating a huge amount of fake news. In
order to understand this phenomenon of social media use by the people of Saudi Arabia, the
study applies several communication theories like media intrusion theory and user-interpreted
communication theory among others. The proposed study would be a quantitative study

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involving survey methods with the support of secondary data for answering the proposed
research questions.
Future Aspects of this Research Study
The evidence provided by this research study, if it confirms the use of Twitter for spread
of fake news, it could point to the use of other social media platforms also for the same purpose.
It is evident that caution must be exercised by the government, the security agencies, and the
management of these social media organizations to curb the spread of fake news using their
respective platforms. This is where the role of cybersecurity specialists could come in, both at
the private and government levels to identify those handles and accounts that are being used to
spread fake news.
Potential Ethical Issues
Ethical issues are the concerning areas, which needs to be identified for understanding the
potentiality of dishonoring a viewpoint or space of a specific group of individual. In a research
proposal, the prevention of the possibility of any ethical issues is crucial in the process of
conducting the procedure of conducting data collection and data analysis. The research will be
conducted through the procedure of quantitative data collection method, which involves the
process of conducting survey by preparing questionnaires. The use of survey method can be
beneficial for understanding the intricacy of the topic and usage behavior.
However, it reflects the possibility of few ethical concerns, the anonymity and
confidentiality of the respondents, the official permission from the concerning bodies for
scheduling a survey procedure as well as the ethical issue associated with the consent of the

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respondent for using their opinions for a research subject. As per the university ethical
guidelines, the possibility of the ethical concerns needs to be addressed or prevented during the
conduction of the research methodology. The identified ethical concerns can be addressed by the
assuring the anonymity of the collected responses, by following an appropriate process of getting
appointment from the specific group of respondents. The prevention procedure should ensure the
avoidance of controversial implication from a certain group or individual in regards with the
governmental initiatives. The prevention procedure for addressing the potentiality of the ethical
concerns can also be addressed by the conduction of a pilot study in the presence of extra
schedule duration.

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Bucy, E. P. (2003). Democratic Realism, Neoconservativism, and the Normative Underpinnings
of Political Communication Research. AEJMC Convention.
Dizikes, P. (2018, March 08). Study: On Twitter, false news travels faster than true stories.
Retrieved from MIT News: http://news.mit.edu/2018/study-twitter-false-news-travels-
faster-true-stories-0308
Hochheimer, S. C. (1985). The beginnings of political communication research in the United
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Michaelson, G. A. (1999). Winning the Marketing War. McMillan.
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