Activists’ losing battle against state sponsored trolls

On the 25th of October, prominent Saudi women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif deleted her twitter account while on stage at the Singularity-U Global Innovation conference. Her facebook account soon suffered the same fate. But why would an activist de-platform herself?

Mrs. Sharif explained in a youtube video that her decision to quit those platforms was not made lightly. After all, it was through those same platforms that only a few years ago activists, herself included, managed to have their voices heard beyond their countries’ borders. Many injustices were brought to light, and the pressure of the international community was often enough to act as a catalyst for change for the better.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case: the platforms which were once a safe haven for activists have now become a trap, according to Mrs. Sharif. State sponsored trolls and bots are waging an invisible war against activists, critical journalists and dissenters, endlessly harassing them, sowing misinformation and dissent and generally doing everything in their power to undermine the activists and their message.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia decided to take their war on activists to the next level, by infiltrating the platform itself: they groomed a twitter employee, Mr. Alzabarah, and through him allegedly gained access to activists’ personal accounts and information. Although twitter’s internal investigation did not turn up conclusive evidence that information had been handed over, they terminated the employee, who returned to Saudi Arabia and has since been working for the Saudi government.

Based on all this, Mrs. Sharif came to her decision: “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.”

It is true that social media, not just twitter, have proven very susceptible to bad-faith actors such as trolls, bots and belligerent users, who often weaponise features originally intended to weed them out against activists and other users. This cannot be allowed to continue.

The role of the media is to act as a check and balance towards injustices, but in countries where the press isn’t free, this role instead falls on social media such as twitter. But as those governments have adapted to this new form of dissidence and have turned it against the activists, not only robbing them of their voice but also putting them in harm’s way, whatever progress has been made is beginning to be unmade.

So, what can be done to undo the damage bad faith actors have inflicted on social media platforms, and restore them to their old glory? This is something where more traditional news media and organisations can make a huge difference. By raising awareness on this issue, and then translating this awareness into pressure on twitter, facebook and other social media to increase their security and standards of moderation, little by little, we can begin to repair the damage, until the likes of Mrs. Sharif feel safe to use those platforms once more.