#TwitterJail: Two Men Are Going to Jail for Close to a Decade Because of Their Twitter Posts

#Whoops

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Complex Original

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Two men in Saudi Arabia have been sentenced to close to 10 years in jail for using Twitter and pissing off their government.

"The accused had sent invitations via Twitter to participate in protests and gatherings against the Kingdom," said Saudi Justice Ministry spokesman Fahad Al-Bakran. He said that one of the unnamed men is already serving a three-year jail sentence, and was convicted of using social media and websites to be "hostile to the government" and "promote deviant ideologies." CNN pointed out that Saudi officials use the phrase "deviant ideologies" when talking about al Qaeda and al Qaeda associated groups. That man was sentenced to 10 years in jail, and the other man was sentenced to eight years in jail and is banned from posting on the Internet for eight years after his release. The second man's crime? He was "inciting relatives of Saudis arrested for security reasons to protest their imprisonment by tweeting and via posting videos on sites like YouTube," according to Al-Bakran. 

[via CNN]

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