On May 20, multiple human rights organizations issued a joint statement condemning Meta for implementing ‘geo-blocking’ on Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to independent NGOs, researchers, and civil society activists at the request of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This measure rendered such content inaccessible to local users in those countries. The signatories revealed that since April 30, the Facebook accounts of Saudi human rights group ALQST, Gulf-based pro-democracy media outlet Democratic Diwan, Saudi researcher Abdullah Alaoudh, and human rights defender Yahya Assiri have all been blocked in Saudi Arabia; similar restrictions were also imposed in the UAE on several accounts, including one belonging to an academic. In notifications sent to affected users, Meta cited ‘local legal requirements’ or ‘government requests,’ while its transparency reports explicitly reference cybercrime laws in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Among the types of content deemed ‘illegal’ are ‘reports concerning regional geopolitics.’
According to Meta’s publicly released content restriction reports, over 100 Facebook pages and Instagram accounts have been blocked since March 2026. The joint statement characterized these actions as ‘arbitrary and discriminatory,’ emphasizing that they directly violate individuals’ rights to free speech and access to information. It further accused Meta of once again serving as an ‘enforcement tool for authoritarian regimes’ — given how Saudi and UAE authorities routinely rely on strict cybercrime and anti-terrorism legislation to suppress dissent, resulting in numerous arrests and convictions of activists solely for online expression. The statement also noted that the Saudi government has demanded X implement geo-blocking on multiple prominent Saudi activists’ accounts; as of May 20, however, X had yet to comply. Ultimately, the coalition urged Meta to uphold its corporate human rights responsibilities by ceasing all arbitrary restrictions on user-generated content.