In Saudi Arabia, insulting someone on WhatsApp is a crime that can land people in jail. A court in the kingdom recently sentenced a woman who swore at her cousin via the messaging app to ten days in jail, Okaz newspaper >reported.
This came after she sent the woman profane messages, including one in which she told her "you should learn loyalty from dogs".
The complainant in the case was adamant to file a legal action against her cousin, presenting screenshots of messages she had sent her as evidence. The defendant told the judge her cousin had also sent her vile texts but she presented no evidence to prove that.
Even though the judge tried to reconcile the women, they both refused to end the matter amicably and the case ended with the defendant being jailed.
The case is now making the rounds on Saudi Twitter
Some reacted like this
“This is why I prefer face to face confrontation… you get to drag anyone in front of you without leaving evidence behind.”
Others thought the entire sentence was just too much
“This is just too over the top.”
People just couldn’t even
“Relatives and you do this to each other?”
“Ya sater”
Not the first similar case to be reported in the kingdom
Last year, a Saudi judge> sentenced two women to ten lashes each after they insulted each other via the messaging app. The ruling was revealed in a report on the increase of crimes related to social media in the kingdom.
According to a local newspaper, such offenses have been on the rise in recent months. Other than the "WhatsApp case", several other bizarre ones are now in legal records.
They include a case involving a man who sent his friend an offensive message and another which saw a man blackmail a woman, threatening to share revealing photos of her.
Apart from Saudi Arabia, both the >UAE and >Kuwait implement strict cybercrime laws.