Saudi Arabia Has Banned Online Satire And Can Throw You In Jail For Five Years If You Commit Such a Crime
Independent
Social media users who post or share satire that attacks religion will be imprisoned for up to five years under strict new laws introduced in Saudi Arabia.
Those found guilty of distributing content online deemed to “disrupt public order”, would also be subject to a fine of three million riyals (£625,000), the Middle Eastern country’s public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Twitter.
It said: “Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disturbs public order, religious values and public morals through social media will be considered a cybercrime.”
Goddamit Saudi Arabia you were doing so well. First you brought women back and allowed them to drive. A big step in the 21st century if I do say so myself. Then they decided they were building a canal around Qatar because fuck that place. They did arrest a 14 year old kid for doing the Macarena, but he had it coming anyways. But now they’ve taken a step back. Banning satire as a whole and making it punishable by prison is tough for a country trying to become progressive. How do you just ban satire? Everything on the internet is basically satire. You can’t tell who is a troll these days and who isn’t. There is no sarcastic font on Twitter to tell who is being serious and who isn’t. Now you go to jail if you tweet out satire? Seems reasonable.
Are the writers of ClickHole and the Onion now the most wanted terrorists in Saudi? Is PFT the most dangerous man in the entire country? It would be incredible content if we flew him to Saudi Arabia for a week just to see if he could avoid prison. Now if he got caught that would be a tough task to get him out. You think manually building the Barstool Bar as a company for content is tough? How about breaking one our writers out of a foreign prison? I would task Rone, Francis, and Caleb with the job. I think Caleb could put their brains in such a blender that Rone and Francis could sneak on by while every guard is distracted. Would be tough to get Buddha Ben in there with a camera, but he could make it work as long as he had his trusty skateboard.
If someone retweets this blog in Saudi Arabia are they now sent to jail? Is this the most dangerous piece of literature out there currently? Pray for Saudi Arabia if anyone reads this offensive piece.
