Cairo: A Saudi media regulator has fined an online celebrity SR100,000 and revoked her licence over remarks deemed harmful to family values.
The General Authority of Media Regulation said the Snapchat influencer had appeared in a video and used “appropriate phrases inciting family damage”.
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The regulator did not name the celebrity, but some media reports alleged she is Asma Al Sayari, a famous content creator, who recently appeared in a video advising men to shun certain acts while being out for the first time with their fiancées including excessive jealousy and ordering “saver meals”. She has 1.8 million followers on TikTok.
Saudi authorities have in recent months exposed several cyber offences.
In August, a Saudi state media watchdog summoned a snapchat user for questioning over featuring a content deemed immoral and slanderous.
The female user in question had allegedly appeared in clips including of-fensive slurs against others, Saudi media reported.
The General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) had reportedly summoned the girl, whose age or name was not disclosed, and complet-ed her official data before referring her to public prosecution.
The offence is punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of SR3 million, or one of the two penalties according to the king-dom’s anti-cyber crime law.
In July, GCAM summoned a celebrated female Tiktoker accused of mak-ing racial comments in a recent broadcast and violating electronic media rules in the kingdom.
Last May, Saudi media reported that an online celebrity was referred to prosecution for spreading false news over religious authorities’ perfor-mance in the kingdom.
The female influencer, whose name was not given, had alleged on her Snapchat account that the Saudi Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had forced unmarried couples caught together to marry for at least two years.
The embattled celebrity also claimed that those failing to remain in mar-riage for the abovementioned period are penalised by 10 years in prison and flogging.
Okaz newspaper reported in August that a prosecution monitoring cen-tre keeps an eye round the clock on material transmitted on social media to spot any “criminalised activity”.
