UN Censors Criticism of Saudi Arabia at Internet Conference

Alain Williams writes: United Nations officials removed criticisms of the Saudi government from the official record of a UN-organized internet governance conference in Riyadh in December 2024, and retaliated against civil society organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The events at the 19th annual UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) were the latest example of repressive government hosting a major UN conference censoring and intimidating civil society representatives.

The IGF secretariat censored criticism of Saudi Arabia by a well-known Saudi human rights defender at a Human Rights Watch workshop, threatened to eject Human Rights Watch’s Saudi Arabia researcher, and confiscated materials highlighting the cases of human rights defenders.