Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and Saudi regime critic, was murdered on October 2nd, 2018 by the Saudi Arabian government inside a Turkish Consulate. Fumbling for a secure alibi that did not exist, the Saudi government instead publicized false claims that Khashoggi was still alive. When this lie became apparent to the world, heads turned to Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), for answers. MBS denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s assassination plans, further altering the narrative of his murder. On February 26th, 2021, the United States released an intelligence report countering the crown prince’s statement.[1] The U.S. report, promising medium to high confidence, determined that it was the crown prince himself who approved the operation.
Khashoggi’s death has no doubt served as a pivotal example of media freedom destruction; and still, the Saudi government’s attempts to prevent further damage to the crown prince’s public image have even further escalated its silent war on disinformation. Saudi Arabia’s scarce democratic institutions continue to struggle under this added pressure, creeping towards further autocratic consolidation. This dangerous relationship with disinformation, coined as digital authoritarianism, is not an uncommon phenomenon among autocracies around the globe.
This form of digital authoritarianism stems from anxiety within the Saudi government, exacerbated by their attempt to recover from national and global criticism regarding Khashoggi’s death. Prior to the release of their intelligence report, it was long anticipated that the U.S. would confirm the claims against the Saudi Prince. On the line of defense, the Saudi government came well prepared to counter the United States’ account of Khashoggi’s death. By utilizing disinformation to flood global media networks with support for the crown prince, the Saudi government attempted to drown out the accusations at home and abroad.
Expecting the U.S. response, Twitter users surged to the surface of the conflict in support of Mohammad bin Salman, just prior to the report’s release.[2] The tweets fired at U.S. news agencies including The Washington Post, CNN, and NCB News, in an attempt to dispel allegations against the Prince. Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation researcher based in Qatar, identified over 600 Twitter accounts tweeting the hashtag #thepeopleofthekingdomsupportthecrownprince. Alarmingly, he also found that many of these posts were not made legitimately; in fact, they were made by bots operating under inauthentic accounts.
This phenomenon is not unique to Saudi Arabia. In Cuba, a social media analyst created a website to crack down on government monitored accounts. In one instance they identified nearly 200 fake accounts with 200,000 followers.[3] Similarly, in the Philippines, false accounts were identified to have reached an audience of 3 million. Using the power of media to manipulate a population is becoming a widely used tactic across the globe. From the Persian Gulf to the Caribbean Sea, this strategy threatens to erode democratic institutions by deepening autocratic holds on the unfree.
While these propaganda mechanisms gain popularity in the world of information deprivation, the Saudi regime, in particular, has proactively clung to this defensive strategy. In 2015, Twitter charged two former employees for spying on behalf of the government. In 2019, Twitter suspended over 88,000 accounts tied to Saudi disinformation campaigns.[4] The young Saudi prince is alarmingly aware of social media’s capacity to influence perceptions, particularly those of his critics.
The cascade of falsified sources does not stop with mainstream social media. An investigative documentary on Khashoggi’s death called “The Dissident,” received alarming rates of low scores on Rotten Tomatoes, a film-rating site.[5] This trend continued on various websites as well. These scores, though not a proven link to the Saudi political establishment, can be entertained as an attempt to discourage potential viewers from watching the film and forming negative views of the government.
Although some could claim these falsified social media accounts and ratings share a perspective felt by a portion of the Saudi population, the imaginary user behind each post only serves to bolster support for MBS and to encourage his abuse of power. As a leader who took quick measures to consolidate power upon being named the crown prince, his silencing of journalists and amplification of artificial intelligence “voices” serves as evidence for his inability to manage regime critics.
Citizens of a non-democratic society deserve access to truthful information to create motivation behind political movements and measures of vertical accountability. When falsified information circulates throughout the internet with a dangerous potential to influence entire populations, this accountability is lost. Supplemented by the fear of imprisonment or even death for daring to vocally oppose the government, this absence of digital resistance transforms the country’s infrastructure into one built on falsehoods, rather than common truths.
The lack of access to factual information in Saudi Arabia pushes back progress the nation has made towards strengthening its democratic institutions in recent years. Social and economic reform, including efforts to liberate women, are extinguished by the kingdom’s manipulation of the media. As misinformation campaigns attempt to alter public opinion, it only reflects that Saudi’s delicate liberal institutions are descending steeply towards autocratic consolidation.
As the Khashoggi report spread across the globe, nation leaders grappled with how to manage this misinformation conflict. President Biden’s steps to reprimand the government included passive sanctions on the Saudi hit team while choosing to spare the crown prince. With the Saudis playing an essential role in the oil market, the opportunity cost of weakening a relationship with an essential ally outweighed that of accountability.
The evidence from the United States’ own analysis could not persuade President Biden to punish MBS. With a global balance struggling to combat the development of disinformation, the rare emergence of a common truth is a strong offensive mechanism. If the U.S. intelligence report is not used strategically, it may allow for oppression to remain unpunished, further increasing the risk of future misinformation attacks.
Jamal Khashoggi risked his life fighting to uncover the truth, while MBS risked his reputation to conceal it. Unless social media companies revolutionize new counterattacks against disinformation, or a stronger power holds governments like Saudi Arabia accountable, the war on disinformation will continue to escalate. Without this accountability, misinformation will only deepen the threat of digital authoritarianism, and liberal institutions will remain at risk.
Cites Sourced
“Assessing the Saudi Government’s Role in the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi.” Office of the Director of National Intelligence, United States of America. February 11, 2021.
Holmes, Aaron. “Twitter just Suspended over 88,000 Accounts Tied to a Saudi Disinformation Campaign.” Business Insider, Business Insider, December 20, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-removed-accounts-saudi-arabia-disinformation-campaign-2019-12
Kulich, Christina, Elizabet Iams Wellman. “The United Stated has a Democracy Problem: What Democratic Erosion Scholarship Tells Us About January 6.” Social Science Research Council. January 26, 2021. https://items.ssrc.org/democracy-papers/the-united-states-has-a-democracy-problem-what-democratic-erosion-scholarship-tells-us-about-january-6/
Pomerantsev, Peter. “The disinformation age: a revolution in propaganda.” The Guardian. July 27, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/27/the-disinformation-age-a-revolution-in-propaganda
Shahbaz, Adrian. “The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism.” Freedom House. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2018/rise-digital-authoritarianism
Timberg, Craig, Sarah Dadouch.” When U.S. blamed Saudi Prince for role in Khashoggi killing, fake Twitter accounts went to war.” The Washington Post. March 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/02/saudi-khashoggi-twitter-mbs/
Usher, Nikki. “The Reason ability of Misinformation.” Medium, The Journal Blog. November 16, 2020. https://blog.usejournal.com/the-reasonability-of-misinformation-67264523714a
Zeitchik,
Steven. “An Alleged Saudi troll campaign is targeting a movie about the murder
o Jamal Khashoggi.” The Washington Post. January 21, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/21/an-alleged-saudi-troll-campaign-appears-be-targeting-dissident/
[1] “Assessing the Saudi Government’s Role in the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi.” Office of the Director of National Intelligence, United States of America. February 11, 2021.
[2] Timberg, Craig, Sarah Dadouch.” When U.S. blamed Saudi Prince for role in Khashoggi killing, fake Twitter accounts went to war.” The Washington Post. March 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/02/saudi-khashoggi-twitter-mbs/
[3] Torres, Nora Gamez. “Fake profiles and coordination with Venezuela: How Cuba’s propaganda spreads on Twitter.” The Miami Herald. July 2, 2020.
[4] Holmes, Aaron. “Twitter just Suspended over 88,000 Accounts Tied to a Saudi Disinformation Campaign.” Business Insider, Business Insider, December 20, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-removed-accounts-saudi-arabia-disinformation-campaign-2019-12
[5] Zeitchik, Steven. “An Alleged Saudi troll campaign is targeting a movie about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.” The Washington Post. January 21, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/21/an-alleged-saudi-troll-campaign-appears-be-targeting-dissident/
I enjoyed you article, Callie.
As a scholar, this is one of my main research interests; role of information and communication and democracy. I believe that key to democracy is people’s access to accurate and truthful information. With the boom in the digital media, there is a much easier widespread of disinformation and propaganda that meddle our way to the truth. This then cause polarization among the people and threatens the quality of the democracy that a society has.
But your article goes beyond just the spread of disinformation. This is what is scary. The threats of disinformation and propaganda come with the threats not only to the freedom of the press but to human rights and human life. The case of Khashoggi is not an isolated case. Many of our journalists were found missing or dead across the globe in their search for and delivery of the truth to the people.
The Philippines has a history of threats to freedom of the press. There are many Filipino journalists who were reported killed during the Marcos era. There are a lot of reported cases as well linked to the current administration. Not just that, the current administration killed not only a journalist but an entire network that has the widest coverage in terms of news service by taking away its franchise.
China also practices censorship. There are reported cases of journalists or even just ordinary people who post about what is truly going on and deemed to be a critic of the government who were silenced as well. What came as a surprise for me is this video of Chinese journalists who actually take pride of that. They actually believe that their role as journalists is to link the government to the people by just spreading what the government wants the people to hear and not the whole truth.
I think a global discussion on how we resolve this issue must be done. Personally, I think it is difficult. It’s hard to control the information that the public can access because that would mean censorship and also entails risks of bias. Although, I strongly believe that something must be done.
Callie,
I found your post to be incredibly thought-provoking and eye-opening. I think, within the united states, we see misinformation in the media quite often. This is usually due to deep-set ideologies, as a result of the polarization of political parties. Twitter and Facebook are especially notorious for spreading misinformation about any political issue, with COVID-19 being the latest issue to fall victim to. In a world where politics surrounds our everyday lives and is accessed so easily through our phones, more needs to be done to limit the spread of misinformation.
In the Arab world, we see the prosecution of journalists and truth-seekers often. In Egypt, Khaled Said, who was a human rights activist that had video evidence of police officers with drugs, was brutally murdered by police and it sparked outrage on Facebook. The desperate need for governments to conceal the truth is a growing, global issue that needs to be addressed. The responsible governments also need to be held responsible by international institutions for their role in concealing proper information and the spreading of misinformation, as it threatens democracy. Was President Biden in the right by not prosecuting Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman just to maintain the economic relationship we have with Saudi Arabia at the cost of his accountability? I’m not sure. This speaks on our own democratic responsibility in the United States and our position of allowing misinformation and suppression of the truth for the sake of a diplomatic relationship. Our own democracy is threatened by allowing this because it highlights the mistrust between citizens and the government. President Biden’s forbearance on the issue is one factor of a much larger issue. To my surprise, Twitter seems to be handling much of the issues of misinformation by themselves, and they’ve uncovered a hefty amount of Saudi-driven influence through social media accounts. Without the proper acknowledgment of this by international players, we are continuing to allow authoritarians to maintain their power in a threatening way.