Twitter accused of pandering to Gulf States by shutting down human rights organisation who helped Princess Latifa, daughter of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum.
Twitter suspended the human rights group Detained in Dubai, who brought Sheikha Latifa’s shocking case to the international media, saving the lives of those involved and warning authorities via the social media giant. The Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) was also suspended.
“Twitter has become complicit with Gulf States against the very human rights advocates who expose grave injustice, enforced disappearances, kidnappings, torture and extrajudicial killings”, says Radha Stirling, founder of 13 year old Middle Eastern rights organisation Detained in Dubai who has become a high value target of Gulf states.
Detained in Dubai founder Radha Stirling was added to the growing list of suspended human rights voices, a worrying precedent for the future.
In March 2018, Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum made a distress call to Ms Stirling, who had been in touch with her throughout her escape from Dubai. “Radha, please help me, I can hear men outside. I can hear gunshots, please help” are the harrowing final pleadings of Princess Latifa before her abduction and enforced disappearance.
Latifa, along with Captain Hervé Jaubert and the crew of Nostromo suddenly lost all contact with Stirling who feared for their lives, leaving the Detained in Dubai chief executive with an extraordinary responsibility. “My conversations with Latifa were clear. She was sure she would be killed if she was caught and so was Hervé. I believed them and acted fast”, recalled Ms Stirling who was stunned to hear Latifa's story for the first time, later releasing her direct testimony to the press.
Stirling didn’t know whether they had been slaughtered on site and sunk alongside the escape yacht that carried them towards India. Immediately swinging into action to protect her friend and the princess, Stirling notified authorities in the United States, India and the UAE, using Twitter to alert Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum and the Dubai Media Office before the story had even broken in the news. “Not only did we contact the UAE’s Ambassador, but we used Twitter to notify the Dubai police and Sheikh Mohammed himself of the incident, as well as the Indian Coast Guard and authorities in the USA. We used Twitter to let the UAE know that we were aware of the attack on Nostromo and would be aware if anything happened to those onboard.”
The organisation had used Twitter for over ten years to convey important updates on human rights abuses and in emergency situations just like this, situations that are often life threatening. Speaking of international incidences like that of Latifa, Rahaf Mohammed, Hind Albalooki and Dua and Dalal who Detained in Dubai helped and where Twitter had been used as a safety tool (but whose accounts were also suspended), Stirling noted, “Social media is used more and more by human rights victims as a means to secure their safety, and Twitter has a social responsibility to ensure access to the platform is not unfairly denied.”
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Three accounts, purporting to be Doaa and Dalal al-Showaiki, and one belonging to Saudi critic Ali Hashim were suspended over the past days.
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The UAE initially tried to deny any knowledge of Sheikha Latifa’s escape. When journalists approached Dubai’s media office for comment, the allegations were wholly denied including her very existence. Photographs of a different Sheikha Latifa were circulated to distract reporters and hecklers were sent to a press conference organised by Detained in Dubai in an attempt to discredit the organisation. Social media trolls were deployed with the goal of persuading the public that the story was “fake news” and that either Latifa didn’t exist or was safe and happy at home.
Nostromo, the 100 ft US flagged yacht that was to take Latifa to safety. Hervé Jaubert and Radha Stirling at the Detained in Dubai Press Conference that followed his rescue from the UAE where he had been abducted to.
And the UAE has not stopped. In fact, Princess Haya’s embarrassing departure and a string of lawsuits initiated by clients of Stirling’s in the UK and the US have aggravated a regime desperately clinging to its fading glamour.
“Detained in Dubai has been responsible for exposing wrongdoings against foreign nationals for over a decade, warning business owners, expats and tourists of the risks of traveling to, living or investing in the UAE. But rather than seeking our advice and implementing changes, we have been targeted by the UAE’s government controlled media with fake news smear campaigns as well as serious ongoing cyber attacks by foreign agents”.
Detained in Dubai is supporting multiple lawsuits, several of which involve the government of Ras Al Khaimah and allegations of human rights violations, while another has been launched against Sheikh Mohammed’s prized legal advisor, Dr Habib Al Mulla and members of the prominent Al Rostamani family. Combined with a United Nations claim on behalf of Princess Latifa and several other UN complaints that have followed, Detained in Dubai has become somewhat of a problem for the Emirates, which is now facing serious economic issues, worse than the 2009 financial crisis.
The UAE hit back at the organisation after the arrest of flight attendant Derrin Crawford went viral, with a string of abuse from multiple Emirates based accounts followed by a sudden suspension of Detained in Dubai's Twitter accounts.
Government controlled media then published false allegations from an Emirates based lawyer who did not represent the family that Stirling was publishing fake news, was a fraud and was fundraising for Crawford. The lawyer, Bader Ahmed, when corrected by Crawford’s sister and then directly by Ms Stirling, refused to make corrections to the news article.
Detained in Dubai made complaints to Abu Dhabi and Dubai Police under the UAE’s strict cybercrime laws that prohibit slander, fully evidencing her complaint. Unsurprisingly, her complaints were not followed up by enforcement authorities, despite foreign nationals having been arrested over social media posts as trivial as calling someone a “horse face”.
“There is no such thing as free speech in the UAE, only propaganda. Critics of the government or the royal family face life in prison. It’s a country where a facebook post or even re-sharing a tweet can result in years in prison and pro-democracy advocates like Ahmed Mansoor, are held incommunicado for indefinite periods of time”, added Radha Stirling who has represented a number of foreign nationals accused of social media offences over the years. “In failing to follow through with my complaint, the UAE only further shows how arbitrarily enforced the law is and how disreputable their journalism is. To give you an idea, not a single news outlet in the country was allowed to publish Latifa's escape and it was forbidden to even share a third party article on Twitter. A special advice note was published to warn residents they would be jailed if they shared social media posts about the princess.”
It was obvious to lawyers of Detained in Dubai that the Twitter suspension was in response to a concerted reporting effort by the UAE, part of an ongoing and escalating series of attacks. Stirling had raised the UAE's increasing belligerence in Washington DC with policy makers, with major media close to the President, amongst major investor groups and in the courtroom with a series of litigations. UAE interests were being damaged.
Immediately upon the suspension, UAE government newspapers falsely announced Twitter’s decision was linked to “fake news” in further attempts to discredit the organisation. “We dealt with the onslaught when we brought Sheikha Latifa’s abduction to the media. In the end, the only thing the UAE succeeded in discrediting, was itself. The country would be better advised to seek outside consultation on making internal improvements, rather than investing in failed coverups of human rights abuses stacked upon human rights abuses”, added Stirling, “We’d be happy to make recommendations to the government. Our hope is to see a safe place in the future for visitors and expats alike. We have no vendetta against the country and would like nothing more than for the UAE to become a positive example to neighbouring countries, but at this point, the self destructive attitude has shown no signs of change”.
Twitter has so far refused to comment and has failed to reply to appeals and to a GDPR data subject access request (freedom of information). Following Detained in Dubai’s suspension, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) announced the suspension of their own account by Twitter in late October. There are grave concerns that the platform itself is being manipulated by Gulf state actors including Saudi whose infiltration of Twitter has been a topic of ongoing discussion since Khashoggi’s execution. US based free speech organisation Skyline has called on Twitter to reinstate Stirling’s accounts and is following up with AOHR regarding their sudden suspension. “Twitter administration's behaviour once again raises concerns over the impact of the global company's regional office in Dubai in limiting freedom of opinion and expression on social media.”
“It’s deeply concerning the company's turn since last year” added Daniel F. Rivera, Skyline director, "it's canceling user accounts all over the world, sometimes by mistake, and it's making it overly complicated for users to recover their former profiles.
“The Skyline Foundation tried to reach Twitter for comment but to no avail. Still, Its persistent cancellation of accounts linked to reporters and human rights activists in the Gulf Region raises serious questions about its commitment to human rights and freedom of speech, fuelling divisions and polarisation.”
Professor Daniel F Rivera, Director of free speech organisation Sky Line International has approached Twitter for comment, but to no avail.
Radha Stirling spoke alongside Professor Rivera and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) Director Khalid Ibrahim at a Skyline conference on free speech following the Twitter suspension, “It is absolutely irresponsible for Twitter to suspend an organisation without notice and without some form of consideration or appeals procedure, allowing a foreign regime with a terrible human rights record to use suspensions as tools to defame critics of oppressive regimes through their state controlled propaganda newspapers.
“In acting so irresponsibly, Twitter has failed in a duty of care such powerful platforms owe to the public. We have used Twitter as a means to communicate urgent messages to protect individuals in dangerous and life threatening situations. Twitter is not just a place to argue about politics. It has literally been a lifeline for many and the arbitrary suspension of activist and journalist accounts raises many questions about the relationships Twitter has established with foreign entities embarking on information warfare. We are getting a glimpse into the future.
“Countries like the UAE will not just be lobbying our governments, they will be lobbying and manipulating our social media giants, and doing so with a big budget. It is important for our sovereignty that Twitter prioritises freedom of speech and increases transparency for users.”
“Radha saved my life. If it were not for her swift action in bringing my abduction public, I do not think I would be here today”, added Hervé Jaubert, former French secret service agent, US citizen and Captain of Nostromo with whom Princess Latifa Al Maktoum planned her escape.
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Radha Stirling responded to the Twitter suspension by increasing her live broadcasts and founding podcast Gulf in Justice. "There is not just a gap in justice, there is a gulf in justice in the Middle East. I founded the podcast to get breaking news and analysis directly to the people, without interference and without censorship. We've already interviewed a number of victims of injustice, their families and Minister for Justice Kenny McAskill, MP but this does not replace Twitter. Twitter's deletion of our accounts is an absolute kick in the face of human rights and a dangerous precedent".
Since Detained in Dubai's suspension, a number of fan accounts have risen to support Stirling.
