Twitter Suspends Women’s Rights Group After Criticizing Saudi Arabia
Twitter is accused of suspending accounts that engaged in the #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen hashtag, including a self-proclaimed non-profit Saudi female empowerment organization, S.A.F.E Movement.
The hashtag, which started to successfully trend on Tuesday, aimed to protest the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia, and quickly took off, with various verified accounts also joining in.
After reaching Twitter’s trending section, podcast host Lalo Dagach reported that the official account for the female empowerment non-profit, S.A.F.E Movement, had been suspended, allegedly in part due to “Saudi men spamming reports.”
.@twitter has suspended @SafeMov, an account dedicated to Saudi women's rights.@SamHarrisOrg @MaajidNawaz @MrAtheistPants @RichardDawkins pic.twitter.com/Y72OoVdFbh
— Lalo Dagach (@LaloDagach) September 20, 2016
UPDATE: @IHWCo and his women's rights campaign @SafeMov are still suspended due to Saudi men spamming reports. @twitter @Support @jack pic.twitter.com/csy9iFvpge
— Lalo Dagach (@LaloDagach) September 21, 2016
Soon after, other accounts were reported to have been suspended for joining in with the hashtag, including S.A.F.E’s director Isaac Cohen.
The suspensions caused a huge backlash, with many people questioning whether Twitter’s links to Saudi Arabia had anything to do with the censorship.
Apparently ppl who used #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen have been banned
— Michelle Catlin
Not surprising since a Saudi Prince is Twitter's 2nd largest shareholderComments
