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