Elon Musk’s X latest to block Saudi dissident accounts inside kingdom
Yahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist, is one of those affected by the account blocking. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The GuardianView image in fullscreenYahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist, is one of those affected by the account blocking. YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.The same month, X emailed al-Masarir informing him of the request from Saudi authorities alleging that his account violated Saudi law, with an attached decree.
- ▪Yahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist, is one of those affected by the account blocking.
- ▪Photograph: Martin Godwin/The GuardianView image in fullscreenYahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist, is one of those affected by the account blocking.
- ▪YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.The same month, X emailed al-Masarir informing him of the request from Saudi authorities alleging that his account violated Saudi law, with an attached decree.
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| Original publisher | The Guardian — World |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/04/x-twitter-blocks-dissident-accounts-saudi-arabia |
| Publication time | Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:20:21 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-04T15:35:41.627Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-04T15:35:41.627Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | AkMGcOA1sRCe · 1 stories |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Yahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist, is one of those affected by the account blocking. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The GuardianView image in fullscreenYahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist, is one of those affected by the account blocking. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The GuardianXElon Musk’s X latest to block Saudi dissident accounts inside kingdomExclusive: More than 60 accounts on X have been made unavailable in Saudi Arabia, after similar action on Snapchat and FacebookGeneva AbdulTue 4 Aug 2026 11.20 EDTLast modified on Tue 4 Aug 2026 11.21 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleElon Musk’s X has become the latest major US social media company to block the accounts of Saudi Arabian dissidents so they are no longer visible inside the kingdom, following orders from Saudi…
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