Haia chief slams Twitter’s misuse

Social networks, particularly Twitter, should not take over peoples’ lives, the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has said.
“Those who resort to social networks and microblogs, especially Twitter, as their core life component, have lost their lives and their afterlife,” Abdul Lateef Al-Asheikh was quoted as saying in local newspapers. “Twitter has become a platform for those with no platform,” he said.
“We need to fight ideas promoted by ignorant people who want to change the teachings of our religion. Islam is against any form of extremism and it has warned against the consequences of fanaticism. There are those who attempt to undermine the status of religious scholars, while our enemies have been using means of destruction to create doubt, intellectual defect and ultimately, divisions within our society,” Al-Asheikh said.
The Kingdom has one of the highest rates of social media use in the Arab world amid reports that social media was reported to be the medium of choice among young girls and women for chatting and keeping themselves updated on the latest social developments, arts and fashion trends. However, online media networks have also been used by religious groups to propagate their ideologies and to enlist support from various countries.
The official said there were “segments” who were misusing social media to “demoralize young people and influence naive minds.”
“There are attacks on the country aiming to cause chaos that can lead to death, destruction and the separation of families,” he said.
“Security and stability can only be achieved through the solidarity of Saudis and through united efforts to deter attempts to mislead naive and simpleminded people,” Al-Asheikh said.
Saudi Arabia is the largest digital market in the region, with 40 percent of Arabic tweets coming from the country. Saudis also contributed to 50 percent of Arabic Wikipedia content and 35 percent of Arabic content on the Internet.
Furthermore, 60 percent of Saudi Internet users have accounts on Facebook and 70 percent of them surf the Web in Arabic, according to Omar Christidis, founder and CEO of ArabNet.net.
More than half of all Saudis who use the Internet have authentic, active accounts on Twitter according to a recent study conducted in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. The study indicated that Saudis like Twitter and revealed that Saudi Arabia has the highest rate of use of the Twitter site relative to the number of users on the Internet.