Cybercrime laws turned Kuwait into a huge prison

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IRONICALLY, Kuwait considers itself as a democratic state. Everyone takes pride in it to such an extent that democracy is preferred over development and reforms in education and health sectors, and the economy. However, the same democracy is the reason why our state institutions are disrupted.

To add to that, Kuwait, under parliamentary pressure in 2015,  also turned into a police state. This happened when the National Assembly approved the cybercrime law, which turned into a trap for people.

At the time, this was an attempt by the MPs to protect themselves from the scandals revealed on social media.

Nonetheless, Kuwait is the only country in the world that has rendered poaching on social media, in such a repressive manner, as a matter of life and death.

Kuwait is the only country that throws its citizens into prisons because of a post on Twitter that does not exceed 160 characters. On the other hand, in other countries, there are many measures other than imprisonment, the most common among which are fines or closing the Twitter accounts of the accused.

We have not seen any country sentencing bloggers for a hundred years in prison, or 65 years or even 30 years. In Kuwait, there are about 660 cases filed against bloggers, including 32 women. About 400 Kuwaitis opted to flee the country and stay abroad because of these unjust sentences. All these cost the state huge sums of money in courts and specialized panels every year. The most dangerous aspect in this regard is the social damage to the families of the bloggers.

In most countries of the world, especially democratic ones, freedom of speech and opinion is sacred, and the publisher of the content is not persecuted for his words. This is the case in Britain, France, Germany, Norway and the United States of America, where the former US President Donald Trump “washes the laundry” of current President Joe Biden every day for years without the latter retaliating by using his constitutional authority to undermine his political opponent or accuse him of endangering national security.

Indeed, there are cases that require investigation, including stirring up tribal and sectarian strife, disturbing the peace of society, or recruiting young people and teenagers into terrorist organizations and groups. For these cases, there are deterrent laws.

However, this does not mean persistence in gagging mouths, or pushing for political and social tension because two words bothered some official who then considered such a bother as a threat to national security or to Kuwait’s cordial relations with its neighbors.

Almost all social media users are prison projects including those who exposed corruption and the corrupt.

As for those who fled abroad, they have become like the mouthpiece that incite public opinion against the state and its people. All this is happening because of the legislative shortsightedness that is hostile to the cultural and social nature of Kuwait. The solution is very simple, which is to adopt what the real democratic countries have followed.

It is well known in the region that the strength of Kuwaiti society is its cohesion and openness to freedom of opinion and expression. However, what is currently taking place is a rebellion against the culture of this society. It is unfortunate that there is no official reference that can put an end to all this injustice that demolishes the walls of Kuwait’s security.

The two authorities – the executive and the legislative – adhere to this law because it relieves them of the headache, and does not reveal their scandals.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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