Saudi Arabia: Followers of arms sales groups on social media to face 10 years in prison

Abu Dhabi: Arms and contraband sales groups threaten their followers on social media with jail time and a hefty fine for entering these groups and failing to report their violations to authorities, local media reported.

Under Saudi laws, followers of these arms sales groups bear legal responsibility as they fail to report these groups to authorities, and would face imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine of 5 million Saudi riyals if these groups support terrorism.

Legal Counsel Hisham Al Faraj warned those following arms groups of the legal responsibility entailed on them, indicating that reporting them exempts followers from this responsibility.

“Arms sales groups have spread through social media sites, especially “Telegram” - which is characterised by hiding the numbers of the participants - a number of groups through which various types of weapons and ammunition are displayed, and thousands of people are added to these groups randomly or invited to them through other groups,” Al Faraj said.

People in rebel-held northwest Syria have been trading hundreds of weapons in publicly accessible black markets. The advertised weapons include grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, missiles, thermal sniper scopes, body armour etc.

Those markets are not only available physically in various locations but are also hosted on several social media platforms. Such platforms include telegram and snapshat among others, where hundreds of users have used them to buy or market weapons, as well as donate money for violent jihadist groups operating inside the country, security experts said.

Haid Haid, a Syrian consulting research fellow of the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the weapons advertised the most on those platforms are automatic assault rifles.

“These channels ran advertisements for a range of assault rifles from around the world (namely, Russia, Serbia, and US). Explosives are among the most concerning items for sale in the markets, raising the possibility the homemade bombs and explosive materials could fuel terror attacks outside of Syria, with merchants offering suicide belts for as little as $50. Advertisements selling anti-tank equipment missiles and firing units such as Russian Metis anti-tank missiles and M79 Osa anti-tank rocket launchers, were also circulated via social media,” Haid added.

He said the encrypted Telegram application seems to be the main social media platform of choice for selling, buying, and boasting about weapons and equipment in north western Syria.

“The markets, which are created as Telegram channels, allow anyone with a link to the market to post pictures of weapons for sale or contact sellers. The latter typically post photographs of weapons with a description of the item, a suggested price, and the location of where to pick up the weapons. Buyers can either post a public request for the weapons they would like to buy, or send a direct message to a seller to agree on a price and location to meet and complete the sale,” he said.

Haid, also a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East, warned those Telegram arms markets appear to function with little apparent central administration. With much of the markets’ trade taking place in the last rebel-held region, the absence of a government regulating the arms trade has given buyers and sellers little cause for anonymity, with members often posting their cellphone numbers and locations openly.

“A review of locations mentioned in the markets indicates that much of the markets’ user base is located in Idlib province, where the al Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is dominating. The provincial capital of Idlib City and the city of Jisr al-Shughur are among the most frequently cited locations. Nonetheless, the strong encryption of Telegram allows the people involved to communicate without fear of being monitored.”

Haid said Telegram is far from the only online service that has played host to the illicit weapons trade, young residents in rebel-held Syria are also using Snapchat as a social media platform of choice for selling and buying weapons. This is due to the ability of the messaging app to provide a mix of instantaneous and direct means of communication. It’s quick, users have complete control over who is seeing their messages, and it provides a mobile means of communication. While arms sales have almost certainly occurred via Snapchat, it’s clear the app is being used more successfully to boast, show off, and send propaganda.

He added Facebook is also used as a marketplace to buy and sell weapons. Some of those markets are created as open Facebook pages, which allow everyone to view the weapons displayed or to make requests for specific weapons. However, those pages are usually taken down by Facebook, which has increased its actions against such illegal markets. For example, a public Facebook page called “The first weapons market in the Idlib countryside” published posts with photographs of weapons inviting buyers to contact page administrators privately using popular messaging application WhatsApp to discuss sales and transactions. However, the page was quickly taken down by Facebook. Other markets seem to be established as a private group, which increases its security and may hinder, or delay, Facebook’s ability to close it down.

“All of the social media applications listed above have a zero-tolerance policy for promoting violence. As such, they usually shut down the accounts that buy or sell weapons on their platforms. This has been evident in the dozens of online weapons markets that have been closed down over the past couple of years. That was done largely through artificial intelligence algorithms that were designed to identify such violations. Besides, those companies depend on other users to report offending channels, which are usually shut down within a few hours of reporting them,” he said.

Haid argued while those efforts and mechanisms have limited the number of those channels, they have not been able to prevent them from using the platforms for illegal activities. “Thus, the respective channels have to continue to work on improving their algorithms, especially those written in foreign languages, in order to increase their efficiency. Likewise, more outreach activities should be done in the countries that are witnessing arrests or conflicts, to increase the engagement of local communities in reporting offending channels,” he said.