FOLLOWING a worldwide spike in the use of digital recording technology especially cameras embedded in smartphones to capture video of misconduct on the part of public officials, the trend has taken a firm foothold in the Kingdom albeit with a twist.
Al-Riyadh daily reports how smartphones have become the favorite and most effective method of recording videos of government officials to hold them accountable for negligence and misconduct, and to even catch and expose cheating spouses.
While marital troubles may have once been something restricted to the private domain of the family, this is no longer the case. Cleaning one’s dirty laundry in public is no longer an uncommon thing, thanks to both smartphones and social media websites. In a matter of minutes, spouses can expose their cheating partners or a public official for the entire world to see. In 2014, the number of videos being uploaded on social media websites increased by 200 percent and viewership rates by more than 260 percent.
To fight the trend of uploading reputation-damaging videos, the Ministry of Interior issued directives that were in line with Article 6 of the Cybercrime Law, which stipulates that a person who uploads such a video on a public forum faces a 5-year prison sentence or a fine of up to SR30,000 or both. As the result of the directives, many victims have stepped forward and filed claims against those who tainted their reputation. Confusion, however, remains about the law and what type of videos can be considered to be image-damaging.
Lawyer Nouf Al-Yahya said many clients ask her if recording videos of others without their permission is illegal and what kind of penalties are imposed on image-damaging videos.
“In short, the answer is a big yes. There are laws that consider such an act to be criminal. The Cybercrime Law’s Article 3 stipulates a prison sentence or fine or both on the culprit, who can be imprisoned for a full year and fined not less than SR500,000,” she explained.
Cybercrimes include intercepting the data sent over the Web by a computer without reasonable legal grounds; hacking into someone’s computer and threatening and blackmailing them into doing something they do not want to do; hacking into a website and changing or damaging its configuration; violating the privacy of others by videotaping them with a cell phone or other devices and naming and shaming others in public using social media websites. The latter includes videos posted by husbands or wives to damage the reputation of their partners.
Posting videos showing children under the age of 10 singing or dancing in a way that reflects negatively on their guardians can fall under physical abuse and is punishable. It can also be considered a form of violation of child rights as per Article 36 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which the Kingdom is a signatory.
The article calls for protecting children against all forms of abuse. Al-Yahya noted that there is no specific body or organization in the Kingdom that handles and fights these practices.
Amal Al-Ameer, a psychiatrist, said the majority of people believe that it is the right of everyone to post any abuse or sexual harassment videos they may find online. But such actions can bring a lot of damage and devastation to the persons seen in the video, she warned.
“Technology has given way to very sick people, people who have troubled personalities, to take advantage of others. It is important that the culture of respect of privacy should be prevalent in society to curb such practices,” she said.
