The satirists’ Instagram post showed Jordanian insurrection police arresting a man for hosting a party honoring his young son. His crime? The dinner on the day of the crown prince’s wedding.
Another gag order represented an official crusade for the Jordanian population to express enough happiness for the royal family. If the subjects of the kingdom did not smile at an angle of at least 77 degrees, they would be fined.
Then there’s the joke that asks where they gave the prince all the cash to cover the prices of their nuptials.
For AlHudood, the Middle East’s reaction to The Onion was nothing new. The website, which since 2013 has been committing what co-founder Isam Uraiqat calls “satire of equivalent opportunities,” features headlines such as “Turkey and Syria agree to repatriate 50% of all refugees” and “Symptoms of Saudi government Hajj promotion agreement with Cristiano Ronaldo. “
So, of course, an online page of political satire featured in Jordan would laugh at the kingdom’s celebrations for the crown prince’s wedding, an opulent event that attracted celebrities and other wealthy people from around the world. Moreover, Uraiqat said, he and his team of writers had worked within the arbitrary confines of freedom of expression in the region for a decade; They thought they knew how far they could go.
“We didn’t think we were exaggerating,” Uraiqat said of jokes about marriage in Jordan. “We did this like any other story: we took a look at what’s applicable and worth talking about. “
But a few weeks later, friends and colleagues asked if the online page was down. Readers in Jordan left comments indicating that they may no longer log in to the site.
The Jordanian government smoothly blocked AlHudood and added it to the list of dozens of banned sites.
“We don’t replace the line,” Uraiqat said.
The former screenwriter and activist had positioned the site as a court jester revealing the truth among the top austere forces controlling speech in the Arab world: government-sponsored news channels encourage state policy; sclerotic intelligence facilities and officials who are unable or unwilling to perceive social media; and dictators who project a symbol of tolerance while suppressing dissent at home.
The Jordanian ban on AlHudood (its name in Arabic means “the limits” or “the borders”) signals a new trend in state censorship, both in Jordan and in the rest of the Arab world, where satire, even frivolity in the face of authority, is considered unacceptable, and officials simply make a joke.
A TikTok influencer arrested in Dubai this month after posting a video showing a super-rich Emirati throwing piles of money to buy a luxury car. The emirate of Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates, presents itself as an open-minded exception. in a conservative Persian Gulf, he didn’t find it funny. (AlHudood is also banned in the United Arab Emirates. )
Under the guise of “protecting morality,” the Iraqi government in February accused more than a dozen stars and social media activists of posting what it deemed “inappropriate content. “It even created a smartphone app so that the citizens involved can report anything they find offensive.
Saudi Arabia, which a United Nations investigator found guilty of the “extrajudicial execution” of a Washington Post journalist in 2018, has targeted social media posters in recent years. The kingdom has imposed fines and five-year criminal sentences since 2018 on others “who produce and distribute content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disturbs public order, devout values and public morality through social media,” according to the country’s attorney general.
Compared to the occasionally grim degrees of loose talk of its neighbors, in Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Jordan, an impoverished desert kingdom of some 11 million people, has long enjoyed a reputation for relative openness.
Its 61-year-old monarch, King Abdullah II, is a faithful best friend of Washington who relies on the generosity of the United States and other nations to move his country forward. He talks about democratic rights and the promotion of political parties.
Now, the Jordanian government has enacted new, and critics say draconian, amendments to its already problematic cybercrime law. Many see AlHudood as a victim of the repressive media ecosystem that the state tested even before the law was passed by parliament.
“It’s the same mentality that justifies blocking AlHudood,” said Raya Sharbain, who works as a security professor in Jordan with the Tor Project, which maintains the Tor anonymity network.
The 41 amendments, which the government temporarily tabled in parliament this month and ratified with few adjustments in a special consultation on Thursday, criminalize the use of the law to spread false news, engage in defamation or damage national reputation or unity.
Government officials say the amendments will “protect society” and thwart what they say will be an eightfold increase in cybercrime cases between 2015 and 2022.
But critics and defense teams argue that the law’s language is “gummy,” giving the state the legal force to block entire social networks, ban the use of virtual personal networks (VPNs) and surgically throttle websites.
It would also ban reviews: A negative review of a place to eat on Google Maps, for example, can be charged with defamation and fined more than $4,000.
Meanwhile, social media platforms such as TikTok, which have already been blocked in Jordan since December, will need to open a regional one before their sites can be used in the country.
“From the user posting videos online to investigative hounds and lawyers, everyone will be affected. It’s better to shut down the web than to have this law,” Sharbain said.
Others also communicate the deterrent effect the new cybercrime law will have on any media outlet, with harsher penalties, adding one- to 3-year criminal sentences for bloodhounds and fines ranging from around $28,000 to over $70,000.
“The law says you will have to go to prison and pay money, leaving nothing to the judge’s discretion,” said Yahya Shuqair, an expert on Jordanian media law. “As an activist, even if I have facts as transparent as the sun, I would be afraid to write them down. “He added that it is the latest in a multi-year setback in press freedom in the Arab world.
“There is a difference between the rule of law and the rule of law. And non-democratic Arab governments use the rule of law, whether satirical or not.
The amendments drew an occasional rebuke from the government in the capital, Amman, from the U. S. State Department. UU. de civil society to function in Jordan.
“We reiterate that for countries to thrive, there will have to be protections for loose speech, open debate, dynamic discourse and data sharing, adding also online through print and social media platforms,” Patel said this week.
Uraiqat sees the law as a continuation of the years-long decline of press freedom in the region in the years following the Arab Spring; Since then, he said, the media’s field of action is even more restrictive than before the revolutions of 2011.
Reporters Without Borders, an organization that tracks press freedom, said Jordan’s rating fell 26 points, from 120 to 146, in the 2023 edition of its index, one of the biggest drops in the region. (Norway ranks first, North Korea 180 or last; The United States ranks 45. )
“The things we could say seven years ago, now you are imprisoned for them,” said Uraiqat, who co-founded AlHudood while still living in his home country of Jordan before moving to London with his wife in 2015.
“The government used to let things go, now it’s not. “
The intensified crackdown comes at a sensitive time for King Abdullah II, whose British upbringing and remote Western style have prompted complaints from some that he is out of touch with his other parents, a point that disappointed two years ago when Prince Hamzeh, half Abdullah. Brother and former crown prince, he opposed the Jordanian leadership in what Abdullah insists is a coup attempt.
Even before this incident, the government limited the jobs of journalists, issuing gag orders and imposing situations on news sites. But from then on, Abdullah painted to perpetuate his dynasty, converting the country’s legislation to gain more constitutional powers and showing growing exasperation with grievances from his circle of relatives and politicians.
He also raised the profile of his son and heir, Crown Prince Hussein, assigning him the task of managing relations with Jordan’s top foreign buyers and involving him in major decisions beyond the ceremonial act of office.
Hussein’s one-piece wedding with this promotional boost: a multi-day birthday party that saw the entire country adorned with photographs of the royal couple; a guest list of thousands of celebrities and includes members of the British royal circle of relatives and First Lady Jill Biden.
Jordan has declared a public holiday so that other people can line the streets where the royal procession would pass. A few days before the event, the groups worked to beautify the field, refresh the paint on the sidewalks and trim the hedges. (That, too, water for AlHudood’s mocking mill. )
With the passage of the law in parliament, Uraiqat expands the site’s offerings, they may not be noticed in Jordan or the United Arab Emirates.
He has plans for a podcast and TV series and has hosted a scholarship program where John Oliver hopefuls can receive insight into the intricacies of political satire in AlHudood’s “newsroom. “He and his writers have also created a Razzies-style event, where AlHudood awards an award to top sycophantic reporting in Arab media.
“The challenge is not only the authoritarians, but also their team to spread propaganda in the Arab world,” he said. He added that while the atmosphere in Jordan “is disturbing like never before,” they won’t shy away from the news: which he contemptuously describes as “organized gossip,” about Jordan.
“The bigger the authorities, the more value they have,” Uraiqat said.
“They need to have one without the other, go as far as possible without being controlled or held accountable. “
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Nabih Bulos is the leader of the Los Angeles Times’ Middle East bureau. Since 2012, he has covered the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” revolution, as well as the resurgence of the Islamic State and the crusade to defeat it. His paintings have taken him to Syria, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen, as well as tracking migrants in the Balkans and northern Europe. A Fulbright scholar, Bulos is also a concert violin player and has conducted with Daniel Barenboim, Valeri Gergyev and Bono.
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