Meta and Snapchat Block Saudi Dissidents’ Accounts: How Global Platforms Are Enabling Cross-Border Digital Repression

Together for Justice strongly condemns the decision by major U.S. social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat, to restrict or block the accounts of Saudi dissidents inside Saudi Arabia following requests from Saudi authorities. This development represents a dangerous expansion of digital repression and shows how global technology companies can become instruments of censorship when they comply with authoritarian demands under the cover of “local law.”

According to recent reports, the accounts affected include prominent Saudi dissidents and human rights advocates such as Abdullah Alaoudh, a U.S.-based activist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, and Omar Abdulaziz, a Canada- and UK-based activist who worked closely with Jamal Khashoggi before Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents in 2018. At least seven accounts were reportedly blocked by Meta by the end of April, including accounts belonging to U.S. citizens and individuals based in Europe.

Meta’s own transparency data shows that Saudi authorities requested restrictions on 144 Instagram accounts, Facebook pages, and Facebook profiles in April, and that Meta restricted access to 108 items. Meta has stated that when content is reported as violating local law but not its own community standards, it may restrict access to that content in the country where it is alleged to be unlawful.

Snapchat’s conduct raises even greater concerns. Reports indicate that Snapchat slowed or removed access to some accounts in Saudi Arabia, including one used by Omar Abdulaziz, without notifying the account holders. Snap Inc. declined to comment, leaving affected users without transparency, explanation, or any meaningful path to challenge the restrictions.

This is not a neutral legal compliance issue. Saudi Arabia’s domestic laws are routinely used to criminalize peaceful dissent, human rights documentation, political criticism, and public debate. When platforms enforce such requests without serious resistance, they do not simply “respect local law”; they help export authoritarian censorship into the digital sphere and deprive Saudi users of access to independent voices.

Together for Justice stresses that these platforms cannot claim to defend free expression while enabling a government known for arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, executions, and transnational repression to silence critics beyond its borders. Blocking dissidents’ accounts inside Saudi Arabia does not protect public safety. It protects power from scrutiny.

The organization also warns that this development cannot be separated from the broader normalization of economic and technological relations with the Saudi regime despite its rights record. Saudi state-linked capital has had a visible presence in global technology markets. Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund previously held stakes in Meta before selling them during the second quarter of 2025. In the case of Snapchat, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced in 2018 that he had acquired a 2.3% stake in Snap, worth about $250 million; later reporting has described his stake as rising to around 2.8%.

These financial links do not by themselves prove direct influence over moderation decisions. However, they intensify the need for transparency and independence. When platforms with business exposure, investor ties, or strategic interests in the region comply with censorship requests from an authoritarian state, the public has the right to know whether human rights safeguards are truly being applied.

Together for Justice believes that the affected accounts are not threats to public order. They are voices documenting abuses, challenging official narratives, and amplifying concerns that many inside Saudi Arabia cannot express safely. Silencing them deepens the isolation of citizens inside the kingdom and reinforces the climate of fear already imposed through arrests, prosecutions, travel bans, and surveillance.

The organization calls on Meta and Snap to disclose all Saudi government requests targeting dissidents and human rights accounts, notify affected users clearly and promptly, provide independent appeal mechanisms, and refuse requests that target peaceful expression, rights advocacy, or political criticism.

Together for Justice also urges international regulators, human rights bodies, and civil society organizations to hold technology companies accountable for enabling cross-border repression. Platforms must not be allowed to hide behind vague references to local law when those laws are themselves tools of censorship.

Digital repression is no longer limited to surveillance or account hacking. It now operates through legal notices, geoblocking, opaque moderation systems, and corporate compliance. Meta and Snapchat must decide whether they are platforms for communication—or contractors for authoritarian silence.