0:00:00.000,0:00:15.007
34c3 intro
0:00:15.022,0:00:19.660
Herald: All right, so the next talk is
0:00:19.660,0:00:25.510
"Catch me if you can: Internet Activism in[br]Saudi Arabia." Now I have one question for
0:00:25.510,0:00:31.450
you. Who has ever been in Saudi Arabia?[br]Like, actually in the country. And no,
0:00:31.450,0:00:40.751
Dubai is not Saudi Arabia. I see a couple[br]of hands, like three or something. That's
0:00:40.751,0:00:45.790
actually more than I thought. I'm[br]surprised, because you cannot just get a
0:00:45.790,0:00:52.440
tourist visa for Saudi Arabia, even if you[br]would like to go there. But our next
0:00:52.440,0:00:58.430
speaker, she has been in Saudi Arabia and[br]actually lived and worked there for two
0:00:58.430,0:01:08.470
years. So Miriam, also known to you maybe[br]as Noujoum, has quite some knowledge about
0:01:08.470,0:01:15.640
the culture, people, and politics of this[br]country that seems quite foreign to us
0:01:15.654,0:01:21.680
all. So we're all excited to hear Miriam[br]now. Give her a nice applause, thanks.
0:01:21.680,0:01:28.259
applause
0:01:28.259,0:01:29.749
Noujoum: Thank you very much for the kind
0:01:29.749,0:01:34.280
introduction, and welcome everyone. I'm[br]super excited to talk to you today about
0:01:34.280,0:01:38.340
internet activism in Saudi Arabia. It's[br]one of my favorite subjects. I could go on
0:01:38.340,0:01:42.570
and on for hours, but we just have half an[br]hour. So let's dive right into it. First I
0:01:42.570,0:01:45.760
want to show you what[br]I want to tell you today about. First I
0:01:45.760,0:01:50.380
want to give you some basic information[br]about Saudi Arabia. Then we are going to
0:01:50.380,0:01:56.060
look at Saudi Arabia's cybercrime law and[br]see how it has affected activists in
0:01:56.060,0:02:00.880
recent years, and then I want to talk[br]about internet censorship and how we can
0:02:00.880,0:02:05.290
actually measure it by running an OONI[br]probe. And then finally, because I don't
0:02:05.290,0:02:09.740
want to leave you depressed I also want to[br]spend some minutes on talking about
0:02:09.740,0:02:18.020
positive things. The modern state of Saudi[br]Arabia was founded in 1932 by the Al Saud
0:02:18.020,0:02:23.130
family, who is still ruling to this very[br]day and it's an absolute monarchy and the
0:02:23.130,0:02:27.010
culture is dominated by an[br]ultraconservative branch of Islam that is
0:02:27.010,0:02:31.540
called Wahhabism and due to its riches[br]from the oil industry, the country is
0:02:31.540,0:02:37.090
actually quite modern when it comes to[br]commodities and technology. And I'm going
0:02:37.090,0:02:42.770
to throw some statistics at you. The total[br]population of Saudi Arabia is around 33
0:02:42.770,0:02:49.610
million people and 75% of them are younger[br]than the age of 30. And you can see here
0:02:49.610,0:02:55.440
the population pyramids of Saudi Arabia[br]compared with the population pyramid of
0:02:55.440,0:02:59.220
Germany, and you get a very good idea what[br]a country with a younger population looks
0:02:59.220,0:03:04.080
like versus a country with an older[br]population. And the young population of
0:03:04.080,0:03:08.550
Saudi Arabia is one of the factors why so[br]many Saudis are active on social media
0:03:08.550,0:03:15.670
compared to other countries. Around 75% of[br]the population are owning a smartphone and
0:03:15.670,0:03:21.180
35% are really active on social media, and[br]active in this case means that they log in
0:03:21.180,0:03:29.300
to their social media accounts at least[br]once every month. 25% of the population
0:03:29.300,0:03:34.739
are active users on Facebook and 20% of[br]the population are active on Twitter, and
0:03:34.739,0:03:40.879
Saudi Twitter users account for 40% of all[br]Twitter users and the whole Arab world,
0:03:40.879,0:03:45.159
and that's a lot of people. And if you[br]can't remember any of these statistics
0:03:45.159,0:03:49.239
right now, never mind. The important thing[br]to take away from this is the population
0:03:49.239,0:03:52.470
of Saudi Arabia is[br]very young and most of them are active on
0:03:52.470,0:03:56.430
social media and on the Internet. And now[br]that we are all excited about the
0:03:56.430,0:04:00.269
widespread use of social media in Saudi[br]Arabia, let's have a look at Saudi
0:04:00.269,0:04:07.460
Arabia's cybercrime law. Saudi Arabia[br]cybercrime law was instated in 2007 and
0:04:07.460,0:04:12.620
the law specifies what is seen as a[br]cybercrime and which crimes are met with
0:04:12.620,0:04:17.209
which punishments. And most of the[br]articles are just what you would expect
0:04:17.209,0:04:21.899
from the cybercrime law, but have a look[br]at article 6 at paragraph 1 that you can
0:04:21.899,0:04:29.819
see here. It says there at the end that a[br]cyber crime is, like... actions on the
0:04:29.819,0:04:34.350
Internet are considered a cyber crime if[br]they are a threat to public order,
0:04:34.350,0:04:39.219
religious values, public morals, or[br]privacy, and then article 7 focuses on
0:04:39.219,0:04:44.089
cyber crimes in relation to terrorism, or[br]being active on the Internet in regards to
0:04:44.089,0:04:49.009
terrorism. And as you can probably[br]imagine, the problem here is that these
0:04:49.009,0:04:54.360
are super vague terms that are not really[br]defined, which means that any judge can
0:04:54.360,0:04:59.149
give his own interpretation of what he[br]thinks qualifies as a cyber crime, what he
0:04:59.149,0:05:07.650
thinks is a threat to public safety or to[br]public morals. In 2011 the cybercrime law
0:05:07.650,0:05:10.580
was overhauled and the Saudi government[br]introduced
0:05:10.580,0:05:15.689
new rules and regulations, so that now[br]internet newspapers and also bloggers had
0:05:15.689,0:05:22.409
to obtain a license from the Ministry of[br]Culture and Information. And in 2014 the
0:05:22.409,0:05:26.289
cybercrime law was overhauled once again,[br]so that now the Saudi authorities could
0:05:26.289,0:05:31.389
also take legal action against social[br]networking sites like Twitter, because
0:05:31.389,0:05:37.660
they would allow accounts to be active[br]that would supposedly promote adultery,
0:05:37.660,0:05:43.099
homosexuality, and atheism. And Saudi[br]authorities are also trying to regulate
0:05:43.099,0:05:48.339
the content of YouTube channels. And now[br]you would think that something that is
0:05:48.339,0:05:54.789
called cybercrime law is used to actually[br]chase and catch and convict the bad guys,
0:05:54.789,0:06:02.139
and the cybercrime law actually does that.[br]In July this year a Saudi man was
0:06:02.139,0:06:06.460
sentenced to seven years in prison and a[br]ten years travel ban because he was
0:06:06.460,0:06:10.889
supporting the terror organization Daesh,[br]also called ISIS, and he had tried to
0:06:10.889,0:06:16.169
travel to Syria and also support the[br]fighting there. But he was also convicted
0:06:16.169,0:06:21.429
of other charges. He was also convicted[br]of charges saying that he was preparing,
0:06:21.429,0:06:27.279
storing, and sending material that would[br]harm the public through his tweets. And
0:06:27.279,0:06:31.669
also his tweets were supposedly insulting[br]the Saudi rulers. His cell phone was
0:06:31.669,0:06:35.330
confiscated, his Twitter account was[br]closed, and he is forbidden to tweet for
0:06:35.330,0:06:40.979
up to five years after his release from[br]prison. Now this is just one case, but up
0:06:40.979,0:06:46.479
until 2014 the Saudi religious police[br]claimed that they had closed over 10,000
0:06:46.479,0:06:50.949
Twitter accounts and they had arrested[br]plenty of users because of religious and
0:06:50.949,0:06:56.339
ethical violations. But some of the people[br]who are prosecuted under the Saudi
0:06:56.339,0:07:00.759
cybercrime law are actually just liberal[br]activists. They are young people who try
0:07:00.759,0:07:04.779
to form a movement. They want to be[br]outspoken on the Internet. They want to
0:07:04.779,0:07:10.889
campaign and push for change. And now[br]we're going to meet some of them. First up
0:07:10.889,0:07:15.610
is Ashraf Fayadh. He is an artist and a[br]poet and he was arrested and sentenced
0:07:15.610,0:07:20.090
because of apostasy, because of things[br]that he supposedly said on Twitter and in
0:07:20.090,0:07:26.249
one of his books. And when police failed[br]to bring proof of his apostasy or atheism
0:07:26.249,0:07:31.280
they said that he was arrested because he[br]was smoking and wearing long hair. And it
0:07:31.280,0:07:37.989
is actually suspected that he was arrested[br]because previously he had made a video of
0:07:37.989,0:07:42.670
Saudi religious police lashing a young man[br]in public, in his home town Abha, and he
0:07:42.670,0:07:46.960
had then posted that video online. And a[br]lot of people think that this is the real
0:07:46.960,0:07:51.659
reason why he was arrested. And his[br]sentence has changed many times in
0:07:51.659,0:07:56.050
different appeal courts, from four years[br]in prison and eight hundred lashes, to a
0:07:56.050,0:08:00.490
death sentence because of the supposed[br]apostasy, and then back to eight years in
0:08:00.490,0:08:05.639
prison and eight hundred lashes. And[br]Amnesty International classifies Fayadh as
0:08:05.639,0:08:11.939
a prisoner of conscience. As far as I[br]know, he is still in prison today. Hamza
0:08:11.939,0:08:16.699
Kashgari is also young poet and a writer.[br]He was arrested because of three tweets
0:08:16.699,0:08:19.129
that he had written about a fictive[br]meeting with the
0:08:19.129,0:08:25.529
Prophet Mohammed. He was accused of[br]blasphemy or apostasy as well, to which
0:08:25.529,0:08:30.499
the penalty is usually death under sharia[br]law. He tried to leave the country and
0:08:30.499,0:08:34.820
claim asylum in New Zealand, but he was[br]caught at Kuala Lumpur Airport and he was
0:08:34.820,0:08:38.940
brought back to Saudi Arabia and arrested,[br]and he was held in prison for two years
0:08:38.940,0:08:44.089
without trial. And similar to the case of[br]Ashraf Fayadh, the accusation of apostasy
0:08:44.089,0:08:49.089
is actually highly suspicious to be an[br]excuse, because Kashkari was very publicly
0:08:49.089,0:08:53.139
outspoken on the internet and social[br]media. He had supported the Arab Spring.
0:08:53.139,0:08:57.830
He was supporting pro-democracy movements[br]in Saudi Arabia. He had criticized
0:08:57.830,0:09:02.840
authorities about mishandling the Jeddah[br]flat disaster and other issues. And he was
0:09:02.840,0:09:09.170
released in October 2013. Mariam Al Otaibi[br]is a young Saudi woman who was arrested
0:09:09.170,0:09:13.620
because she was very active in the[br]movement against the male guardianship
0:09:13.620,0:09:17.839
system. And she was very active in the[br]movement to abolish the system. As you
0:09:17.839,0:09:22.590
see, in Saudi Arabia,[br]every woman has to have a male guardian.
0:09:22.590,0:09:25.810
And even when they are a grown ups, when[br]they are adults. And why is that a
0:09:25.810,0:09:30.220
problem? Without the permission, or the[br]consent, of their male legal guardians,
0:09:30.220,0:09:34.720
women cannot go to university, they cannot[br]take up jobs, they can't go see the
0:09:34.720,0:09:38.740
doctor, they can't leave the country and a[br]lot of other things. And the Guardian can
0:09:38.740,0:09:43.880
be their father, husband, uncle, brother,[br]or even their son. And activist in Saudi
0:09:43.880,0:09:48.969
Arabia have fought for a very long time to[br]abolish this male guardianship system. And
0:09:48.969,0:09:52.759
here you can see the Twitter account of[br]Mariam Al Otaibi. You can see that she has
0:09:52.759,0:09:58.829
almost 50,000 followers. And here, in her[br]Twitter bio, you see one of the core
0:09:58.829,0:10:03.510
hashtags of the movement in which she is[br]active, and it's an Arabic hashtag and it
0:10:03.510,0:10:08.599
translates to "Saudi women want the[br]abolishment of the guardianship system."
0:10:11.439,0:10:16.079
Mariam actually herself tried to flee her[br]abusive brothers and her father, and she
0:10:16.079,0:10:18.470
moved to a different city to live her own[br]life. And then
0:10:18.470,0:10:23.910
she was arrested at her workplace because[br]her father had filed a runaway report. But
0:10:23.910,0:10:30.660
very soon, the charges against her changed[br]from being a runaway to disruption of
0:10:30.660,0:10:35.260
public order because of her activism on[br]Twitter. And her house was searched and
0:10:35.260,0:10:39.480
her cellphone and her laptop were[br]confiscated. And after 104 days in
0:10:39.480,0:10:44.269
detention without trial, she was released[br]in July this year. And her release was
0:10:44.269,0:10:49.410
actually deemed a very big success and a[br]victory by Saudi feminists because she was
0:10:49.410,0:10:53.589
released from prison without the presence[br]or the permission of a male guardian,
0:10:53.589,0:10:58.069
because usually how it works is if a woman[br]is released from prison, her male guardian
0:10:58.069,0:11:02.949
has to pick her up. If he doesn't do that[br]she just stays in detention. But she was
0:11:02.949,0:11:08.089
released just like that. And here you can[br]see two designs of the Saudi artist
0:11:08.089,0:11:13.120
MsSaffaa. On the left you see a poster[br]that she designed to support the release
0:11:13.120,0:11:18.490
of Mariam Al Otaibi from prison.[br]The hashtag says "We are all Miriam Al
0:11:18.490,0:11:22.389
Otaibi." And on the right you see another[br]design that she did, that is very famous
0:11:22.389,0:11:25.950
for the movement to[br]abolish the mayor guardianship system,
0:11:25.950,0:11:33.240
and this hashtag says "I am my own[br]guardian." Loujain AlHathloul is another
0:11:33.240,0:11:37.680
young Saudi woman who was arrested in[br]December 2014 when she was trying to drive
0:11:37.680,0:11:42.730
her car over the border from the United[br]Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia. Shortly
0:11:42.730,0:11:46.490
before, she had tweeted "follow me on[br]Twitter to find out what will happen at
0:11:46.490,0:11:51.110
the border." And she had for a very long[br]time been active in the woman to drive
0:11:51.110,0:11:56.220
movement. That means that she had already[br]posted videos of herself driving in Saudi
0:11:56.220,0:12:02.060
Arabia online, showing how she was defying[br]the ban on women driving. She live-tweeted
0:12:02.060,0:12:06.810
this whole experience of being detained at[br]the border. Her passport was confiscated.
0:12:06.810,0:12:11.830
Her friend and lawyer, who came to her[br]support, was also arrested, and ultimately
0:12:11.830,0:12:17.819
she was released after 73 days without[br]trial. Raif Badawi is probably the
0:12:17.819,0:12:21.560
activists that most of you have heard of,[br]because Amnesty International did a huge
0:12:21.560,0:12:26.240
campaign to support his release, and also[br]his wife is very active, publicly, to
0:12:26.240,0:12:31.800
work for his release. He is a writer and[br]an activist, and he was arrested in 2012.
0:12:31.800,0:12:37.020
He was charged of insulting Islam through[br]electronic channels and he was brought to
0:12:37.020,0:12:41.569
court on several charges, including[br]apostasy, and as you already know by now,
0:12:41.569,0:12:48.440
the death penalty is included when you are[br]charged of apostasy. And similar to Ashraf
0:12:48.440,0:12:52.610
Fayadh, his sentence was changed multiple[br]times in different appeal courts and
0:12:52.610,0:12:55.029
eventually[br]he was sentenced to 10 years in prison
0:12:55.029,0:13:00.580
and a fine and thousand lashes, of which[br]only the first 50 were administered,
0:13:00.580,0:13:05.509
probably because of international[br]attention and outrage. And what got Raif
0:13:05.509,0:13:11.060
Badawi in trouble in the first place was[br]setting up a website that was called Free
0:13:11.060,0:13:16.480
Saudi Liberals. In court he was accused of[br]setting up a website that undermines
0:13:16.480,0:13:21.470
general security, ridiculing Islamic[br]religious figures, and going beyond the
0:13:21.470,0:13:27.249
realm of obedience. And he was told that[br]his website would violate Islamic values
0:13:27.249,0:13:32.420
and propagates liberal thought. And the[br]court ordered his website to be closed and
0:13:32.420,0:13:36.319
he is still in prison today. [br]The last activist that
0:13:36.319,0:13:40.720
we are going to look at is Muhammad Salih[br]Al Bajadi. He was, prior to his arrest,
0:13:40.720,0:13:45.759
also very politically active. In 2009, for[br]example, he managed a website that was
0:13:45.759,0:13:50.720
called "monitor of human rights in Saudi[br]Arabia." And he is also the co-founder of
0:13:50.720,0:13:55.340
a Saudi Arabian human rights organization[br]called "the Saudi Civil and Political
0:13:55.340,0:14:00.230
Rights Association." He was also arrested.[br]His office was searched. And Amnesty
0:14:00.230,0:14:04.510
International labeled him a prisoner of[br]conscience as well. And they said that he
0:14:04.510,0:14:09.959
was held solely for the peaceful exercise[br]of his rights to freedom of expression,
0:14:09.959,0:14:14.879
assembly, and association. But in court,[br]however, he was charged with insurrection
0:14:14.879,0:14:19.250
against the ruler, instigating[br]demonstrations, and speaking with foreign
0:14:19.250,0:14:22.980
media channels. And[br]he was sentenced to four years in prison
0:14:22.980,0:14:29.649
and a five-year ban on foreign travels.[br]Now, even if you don't see yourself as an
0:14:29.649,0:14:33.950
activist, if you are active on social[br]media in Saudi Arabia you can find
0:14:33.950,0:14:38.060
yourself the center of unwanted attention[br]in just a second. There are some
0:14:38.060,0:14:42.589
conservatives who would flat-out think[br]that being on Twitter is a sin in and of
0:14:42.589,0:14:47.900
itself, as you can see here. And just[br]three month ago, actually, Saudi
0:14:47.900,0:14:54.269
authorities urged citizens to monitor each[br]other and to report posts on social media
0:14:54.269,0:14:59.410
that would harm the state's reputation. So[br]as you can imagine, that leads to a huge
0:14:59.410,0:15:03.850
level of self-censorship. When I was[br]living and working in Saudi Arabia, I once
0:15:03.850,0:15:08.870
talked to a work contact and I asked him[br]why he wasn't more active on Twitter, and
0:15:08.870,0:15:13.330
he said the first day that he had signed[br]up on Twitter, he had received a direct
0:15:13.330,0:15:17.980
message by a person he didn't know, and[br]the message just said "welcome. We are
0:15:17.980,0:15:25.180
watching you." And when you live in Saudi[br]Arabia and you don't use a VPN or TOR all
0:15:25.180,0:15:29.850
the time you inevitably run across a[br]website that is blocked at some point. For
0:15:29.850,0:15:33.779
me, for example, that was the search[br]engine StartPage. When I was trying to
0:15:33.779,0:15:39.699
access that page, I would land on a site[br]that would look like this. And Saudi
0:15:39.699,0:15:42.970
authorities are hosting[br]a firewall which blocks access to
0:15:42.970,0:15:48.490
thousands of websites. Actually the Saudi[br]authorities, they openly acknowledge that
0:15:48.490,0:15:53.309
widespread filtering takes place, and they[br]would say that it targets pornographic,
0:15:53.309,0:15:58.440
Islam related, human rights, and political[br]sites. And as you can imagine, criticism
0:15:58.440,0:16:04.689
of the royal family and of Islamic[br]teachings is generally not tolerated. Now,
0:16:04.689,0:16:09.699
rewind three years. Three years ago at[br]Congress I ran into a guy named Arturo,
0:16:09.699,0:16:14.389
and he told me how he and his friends were[br]working on this OONI project, and they
0:16:14.389,0:16:19.589
were running probes all over the world to[br]measure the extent of filtering and
0:16:19.589,0:16:24.100
Internet censorship in different[br]countries. And so we teamed up and we did
0:16:24.100,0:16:30.059
some measuring in Saudi Arabia. And OONI[br]stands for Open Observatory of Network
0:16:30.059,0:16:34.509
Interference. And I would very much like[br]Arturo to come on stage for a few minutes
0:16:34.509,0:16:40.209
and to tell you himself what OONI is all[br]about, and how running that probe in Saudi
0:16:40.209,0:16:41.239
Arabia worked.
0:16:41.239,0:16:42.079
Arturo: Thank you Miriam
0:16:42.079,0:16:47.329
applause
0:16:47.329,0:16:52.019
Arturo: So, yeah. As[br]??? three years ago we met and
0:16:52.019,0:16:56.490
I was already working at the time on this[br]project ??????????? for the Open
0:16:56.490,0:17:02.160
Observatory of Network Interference. What[br]we do is we're a community mass project
0:17:02.160,0:17:05.120
I guess that does network[br]measurements with
0:17:05.120,0:17:09.369
??? of what we[br]call "network interference" or "network
0:17:09.369,0:17:13.360
?????????." That can be a sign of internet[br]censorship or surveillance
0:17:13.360,0:17:18.749
And we do this for a variety of different[br]????????? look into the blocking of
0:17:18.749,0:17:24.099
websites such as the one we saw in the[br]previous slide in Saudi Arabia. But also
0:17:24.099,0:17:29.279
whether or not circumvention tools like[br]tor, VPNs work or do not work or whether
0:17:29.279,0:17:35.060
or not and how instant messaging apps are[br]blocked or not blocked around the world
0:17:35.060,0:17:40.480
and we do this through some apps that can[br]be installed either on your mobile phone
0:17:40.480,0:17:46.280
or on your computer and these are run by[br]tens of thousands of volunteers around the
0:17:46.280,0:17:51.500
world to gather evidence of internet[br]censorship around the world.
0:17:52.995,0:17:58.429
I guess I will not go too much into what[br]OONI does because we actually have an
0:17:58.429,0:18:02.370
assembly on the third floor where you--[br]called the OONIverse and you are welcome
0:18:02.370,0:18:07.130
to come by and we can tell you all about[br]it but also we have a longer presentation
0:18:07.130,0:18:13.880
on the third day at 2:30 in borg room and[br]there I can go more into what OONI is
0:18:13.880,0:18:20.615
about and how we have been working with[br]people like Miriam to collect sort of
0:18:20.615,0:18:25.223
undeniable evidence that internet[br]censorship is happening but also how.
0:18:26.174,0:18:29.179
Miriam: Perfect thank you very much. I[br]would very much suggest that you go and
0:18:29.179,0:18:30.584
see that talk as well.
0:18:30.584,0:18:35.179
applause
0:18:35.179,0:18:38.179
So apart from the[br]websites that you would expect to be
0:18:38.179,0:18:42.770
blocked in Saudi Arabia like porn and[br]gambling websites or the website of the
0:18:42.770,0:18:47.700
Israeli Secret Service there are plenty of[br]other websites that are blocked and OONI
0:18:47.700,0:18:52.330
has compiled a very huge and comprehensive[br]list of different websites that are
0:18:52.330,0:18:56.640
blocked in Saudi Arabia that you can find[br]on their website and I brought you three
0:18:56.640,0:19:01.010
short examples just to show you what kind[br]of websites could be blocked.
0:19:01.010,0:19:05.690
On the left you always see the information[br]that is provided on the OONI web page and
0:19:05.690,0:19:10.299
on the right side you see a screenshot of[br]the actual web site that is blocked in
0:19:10.299,0:19:15.930
Saudi Arabia. So first up we have Al-[br]Manar, Al-Manar is a news media web site
0:19:15.930,0:19:22.110
with ties to Hezbollah. Second we have[br]bahai.org, the Bahai are a religious
0:19:22.110,0:19:26.650
group, they are a religious minority and[br]they are oppressed in pretty much all of
0:19:26.650,0:19:31.120
the Arab countries. You can see that[br]actually their website is also blocked in
0:19:31.120,0:19:36.530
the United Kingdom and in Italy for[br]whatever reason. And thirdly we have
0:19:36.530,0:19:40.919
proxify.com, it's just one of many[br]examples of different websites that offer
0:19:40.919,0:19:46.050
services of anonymity and of[br]circumvention. And now because I don't
0:19:46.050,0:19:50.370
want to leave you too depressed when you[br]leave this talk I also want to look at
0:19:50.370,0:19:55.159
some positive things that have happened as[br]well because despite all this persecution
0:19:55.159,0:19:59.640
that I have talked about up until now[br]activists in Saudi Arabia have been able to
0:19:59.640,0:20:04.170
secure some very important victories in[br]the past years and if you have followed
0:20:04.170,0:20:08.240
the news lately a little bit then maybe[br]you have noticed that a lot of things are
0:20:08.240,0:20:13.490
happening in Saudi Arabia, a lot of laws[br]and traditions are changing and because of
0:20:13.490,0:20:17.690
time restraints I'm only focusing on two[br]issues here right now that I personally
0:20:17.690,0:20:22.190
find especially important.[br]So the first example are the Saudi
0:20:22.190,0:20:28.850
municipal elections in 2015 these were the[br]very first elections when women in Saudi
0:20:28.850,0:20:33.850
Arabia were allowed to actively and[br]passively participate in the elections and
0:20:33.850,0:20:40.290
in the end 20 women were elected to[br]municipal councils out of 2,000 seats that
0:20:40.290,0:20:45.230
were open in these elections and women had[br]to overcome incredible hurdles to
0:20:45.230,0:20:50.809
participate or to be candidates. For[br]example, organizations that were set up to
0:20:50.809,0:20:56.210
educate women about the elections to help[br]them to run as candidates and to tell them
0:20:56.210,0:21:01.169
how to register these organizations were[br]forbidden. Female candidates weren't
0:21:01.169,0:21:06.860
allowed to hold public rallies, they were[br]not allowed to give speeches online, in
0:21:06.860,0:21:10.350
TV, in public.[br]They were not allowed to post pictures of
0:21:10.350,0:21:15.779
their faces put them on posters or post[br]them anywhere really. So women were
0:21:15.779,0:21:21.930
basically confined to campaigning online[br]really and especially registering as
0:21:21.930,0:21:26.930
candidates but also as voters was super[br]hard some women were flat-out denied being
0:21:26.930,0:21:32.330
registered without being given any reason[br]but one problem that also the men actually
0:21:32.330,0:21:37.720
had one problem was that voters in order[br]to be registered they had to bring proof
0:21:37.720,0:21:42.419
of their residency and they would usually[br]prove that by showing a rental contract.
0:21:42.419,0:21:45.860
Now the problem is that women cannot[br]produce a rental contract because their
0:21:45.860,0:21:50.290
names are not on these contracts but the[br]names of their fathers or their husbands.
0:21:50.290,0:21:55.090
That's just one of the many problems they[br]had and this is one example from YouTube
0:21:55.090,0:21:59.070
because up until now I have talked a lot[br]about Twitter but there's also a huge and
0:21:59.070,0:22:04.070
thriving and very important YouTube scene[br]in Saudi Arabia and the following video is
0:22:04.070,0:22:08.341
by a famous Saudi YouTube group and they[br]are called Telfaz11 and they have a
0:22:08.341,0:22:12.850
regular show that is called ??? and[br]this clip is actually part from one of
0:22:12.850,0:22:18.860
their shows and they produced this video[br]mocking how women were organizing and how
0:22:18.860,0:22:23.809
women had to work so hard to just[br]participate in these elections while men
0:22:23.809,0:22:29.039
were just lazy and enjoying their[br]privileges and now let's see if this
0:22:29.039,0:22:29.751
works.
0:23:55.129,0:24:04.350
So that's just one example. I like them[br]very much because they have a very fine
0:24:04.350,0:24:08.700
sense of where the red lines are and how[br]much fun they can actually make of the
0:24:08.700,0:24:15.380
government and of actual problems that[br]persevere in Saudi Arabia. And then we
0:24:15.380,0:24:21.100
have another example, three months ago the[br]Saudi King announced that he would lift
0:24:21.100,0:24:25.799
the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia[br]and starting from May next year women
0:24:25.799,0:24:29.950
would be for the first time ever be-- oh[br]not for first time ever, for the first
0:24:29.950,0:24:34.240
time in a long time they would be allowed[br]to drive cars in Saudi Arabia, and
0:24:34.240,0:24:38.899
activists had campaigned for this change[br]they had campaigned for the lift of the
0:24:38.899,0:24:43.769
ban on women driving for a long time for[br]many years that's a long story I don't
0:24:43.769,0:24:48.830
have that much time as I want to to talk[br]to you about it but we have one example
0:24:48.830,0:24:55.519
here one out of many and this is a music[br]video from 2013 and this went viral in
0:24:55.519,0:25:01.470
Saudi Arabia and they were supporting the[br]campaign by the women to drive movement
0:25:01.470,0:25:07.570
who were trying to get the ban lifted and[br]in their music video they are making fun
0:25:07.570,0:25:12.380
of the baseless arguments that were used[br]to justify the driving ban, why women were
0:25:12.380,0:25:19.070
not allowed to drive cars and the context[br]for the fall of 2013 is that at this time,
0:25:19.070,0:25:23.399
a lot of women were defying the ban on[br]women driving, they were driving around,
0:25:23.399,0:25:26.690
they were filming themselves while doing[br]it, they were posting all these videos
0:25:26.690,0:25:32.309
online a lot of women were arrested yet[br]more women were driving around and yeah
0:25:32.309,0:25:37.179
that was just one of the videos that came[br]out at that time, I also want to show it
0:25:37.179,0:25:37.946
to you.[br]
0:26:39.149,0:26:44.370
All right just wanted to show you this short [br]short part but the whole video is really
0:26:44.370,0:26:54.019
ridiculous you have to look it up you're[br]gonna find it on YouTube. And so you know
0:26:54.019,0:26:58.399
the story eventually after many years of[br]activism the ban on women driving was
0:26:58.399,0:27:03.850
lifted just now. The work, the really hard[br]work of all the activists is just one of
0:27:03.850,0:27:08.210
many aspects why it was lifted but we have[br]to appreciate this and here you see some
0:27:08.213,0:27:14.268
of the reactions of women in Saudi Arabia[br]being super happy about this development.
0:27:14.269,0:27:22.149
And so final thoughts, what can we learn[br]from all of this? I would say one thing
0:27:22.149,0:27:25.451
that we can learn from it is the[br]government is not your friend. Whatever
0:27:25.451,0:27:31.380
technology is at their disposal they will[br]use and they will not only use it to catch
0:27:31.380,0:27:35.460
terrorists and put them in prison but they[br]will also use that technology or these
0:27:35.460,0:27:41.080
laws to also persecute activists for[br]example or anybody whom they label as
0:27:41.080,0:27:46.359
terrorists because of this really vague[br]terms and the cybercrime law. And that is
0:27:46.359,0:27:49.520
also why it's really important[br]that we don't let the government put
0:27:49.520,0:27:53.890
backdoors in our safety-- like in our[br]software anywhere because the wisdom the
0:27:53.890,0:27:57.590
government is not your friend applies to[br]pretty much every government really if you
0:27:57.590,0:27:58.758
think about it.
0:27:58.758,0:28:05.150
applause
0:28:05.150,0:28:08.660
And also you have heard[br]how the Saudi government changes laws and
0:28:08.660,0:28:12.900
seemingly becomes more modern and more[br]liberal and tries to appease the young
0:28:12.900,0:28:18.660
population but you have to keep in mind[br]that they are still super autocratic, it's
0:28:18.660,0:28:22.310
still an absolute monarchy and I don't[br]think that this will change anytime soon
0:28:22.310,0:28:28.239
no matter how many news we get next year[br]about like women-- the first woman becomes
0:28:28.239,0:28:32.840
Minister of Foreign Affairs or Saudi Crown[br]Prince gives a speech about the importance
0:28:32.840,0:28:37.160
of freedom of religion for the economy or[br]something like this. But still, the
0:28:37.160,0:28:40.980
government is trying to appease the[br]younger generation and the younger folks
0:28:40.980,0:28:44.890
and that is at least something and I think[br]one of the important aspects here is, how
0:28:44.890,0:28:49.019
do they know with what they can appease[br]the young generation? Well they know it
0:28:49.019,0:28:53.939
because the young people keep telling them[br]on social media all the time and they go
0:28:53.939,0:28:59.460
to jail over and over for speaking their[br]minds for pushing for change and we have
0:28:59.460,0:29:04.170
to acknowledge this as the victory and the[br]sacrifice that it is and it also shows us
0:29:04.170,0:29:08.509
that it makes sense to keep speaking up[br]and to tell the government what it is that
0:29:08.509,0:29:12.750
they want and what it is that they want to[br]change and to keep up the pressure because
0:29:12.750,0:29:17.750
the rule of the royal family rests on a[br]rather unstable religious legitimation so
0:29:17.750,0:29:22.159
they have to make an effort to stay in the[br]good graces of the population because they
0:29:22.159,0:29:26.100
certainly don't want to see another Arab[br]Spring in their country.
0:29:26.100,0:29:30.059
And now I'm hoping that you can take away[br]something from this talk and that it has
0:29:30.059,0:29:34.440
helped to-- helped you to see the Saudis[br]in a different light so that next time
0:29:34.440,0:29:38.429
when someone talks to you about Saudi[br]Arabia and how they are all rich beheading
0:29:38.429,0:29:43.630
bigots you can tell them well, not all[br]Saudis and then you think of the activists
0:29:43.630,0:29:47.880
and that you appreciate the hard work that[br]Saudi activists are doing on the ground
0:29:47.880,0:29:53.299
all the time. There's a lot more I would[br]like to tell you but time is up. If you
0:29:53.299,0:29:57.570
are interested in this kind of subject[br]check out some of these talks I saw the
0:29:57.570,0:30:02.160
talk "Tightening the net in Iran", it was[br]superb, go and watch it online, see the
0:30:02.160,0:30:06.820
video, go and see the OONI talk also and[br]lastly I would say thank you very much for
0:30:06.820,0:30:08.426
your time and your attention.
0:30:08.426,0:30:12.401
applause
0:30:12.406,0:30:17.053
34c3 outro
0:30:17.053,0:30:34.000
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