Saudi activist: Twitter has become tool for tyrants

Saudi prominent human rights activist Manal Al-Sharif said that social media platform, Twitter has become a tool for tyrants to silence dissent.

Speaking at the SingularityU Nordic “global innovation” conference held last week in Stockholm, Al-Sharif deleted her Twitter account live on stage.

The next day she released a video on YouTube in which she explained her decision.

According to Al-Sharif, Twitter has become a platform “for mobs of trolls, pro-government mobs and bots” who are paid for by oppressive governments.

“If the same tools we joined for our liberation are being used to oppress us and undermine us, and used to spread fake news and hate, I’m out of these platforms,” she added.

Read: Saudi Arabia deployed Twitter army against critics

Al-Sharif who has been a prominent campaigner for women’s right to drive in the kingdom, said she has also deleted her Facebook page.

In an interview with the BBC Arabic last May, Al-Sharif criticised what she described as a campaign in Saudi Arabia targeting women’s rights. “Now we are back to zero, we returned to the police state,” she said.