Royal News Blog

Note: This article is from the Guardian.

This article titled “Alwaleed bin Talal: from Saudi prince to king of Twitter?” was written by Brian Whitaker, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 20th December 2011 15.23 UTC

Last February, as the Arab uprisings spread to more and more countries – aided in part by the use of social media – a story circulated that King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, had offered 0bn in cash to buy out Facebook and presumably close it down “in order to end the Arab revolt”.

The original story was a spoof but since oil-rich regimes are noted for splashing their money around as a way of suppressing dissent it had a ring of credibility and others soon regurgitated it as fact. The Saudi government also failed to see the joke and issued a straight-face denial saying: “The report is totally baseless.”

So a bit of caution was in order when news broke on Monday that a Saudi prince has acquired a 0m stake in Twitter. This time, though, the story is true and it has been causing some alarm on the internet. One fairly typical comment said:

“A billionaire from one of the most backward, repressive regimes in the world now owns a chunk of one of the most critical social/communications lifelines in the world. Who and what will he demand be censored in exchange for his huge investment?”

The prince in question, Alwaleed bin Talal, is a nephew of the Saudi king but the two men have little in common beyond the royal blood. Alwaleed is noted for his progressive views and, thanks to his privileged position, he is able to push at the red lines without getting into too much trouble.

He caused a stir in 2004, for example, by paying for the training of a female Saudi pilot and then hiring her to fly his company’s private jets – even though Saudi custom prevented her from driving a car on the ground.

In an article for the New York Times earlier this year, he called on Arab countries to embrace “unwavering, enduring and sincere” reform.

One reform he has been trying to encourage inside Saudi Arabia is the reintroduction of cinema in the face of opposition from conservatives, including his own brother, Prince Khaled.

Two years ago, one of his companies, Rotana, sponsored a film festival in Jeddah which was banned by the authorities just hours before it was due to open. Some suggested the ban had been inspired by his brother, since it came shortly after Prince Khaled had accused him of “spreading depravity and lust” with his “corrupting projects”.

Rotana is also the largest producer of Arab music – which the more traditional Saudis regard as immoral. Cynics might point out that Alwaleed’s media companies would certainly profit from liberalising the rules for films and music, though that doesn’t seem to be his main motivation.

The most likely reason for his interest in Twitter is its huge undeveloped potential in the Middle East. Tweeting by Arabs has grown exponentially over the last few months, largely as a result of the uprisings.

Seeking to restrict that growth through proprietorial interference would scarcely be a sensible business strategy, and in any case the first to complain would probably be @AmeerahAltaweel (his wife), @TalalAbdulaziz (his father) and @Rima_Talal (his sister).

By most calculations Alwaleed’s 0m stake in Twitter works out at less than 4% of the company’s value, so it’s not as significant as it might appear at first sight. More disturbing for some is his chummy relationship with Rupert Murdoch. The prince is News Corp’s biggest shareholder outside the Murdoch family and last year News Corp bought a stake in Alwaleed’s Rotana.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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