The Shoura Council agreed on Tuesday to add claims for defamation in the Kingdom’s anti-cybercrime regulations, meaning that any insult or baseless claim on the Internet could bring judicial penalties for the culprit.

The new amendment was made during the session when the council listened to a report prepared by the Committee of Transport, Telecom and IT, read out by Committee Chairman Jebreel Al-Arishi.

According to Article 6 of the Saudi Anti-Cyber Crime Law, any person who commits cybercrimes shall be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding SR3 million. This applies if the culprit produces, prepares, transmits, or stores material impinging on public order, religious values and public morals, through the information network or computers.

As part of Tuesday’s session’s discussions, the council also called on the Ministry of Economy and Planning to set up an integrated data system to enable the follow-up on development projects with other government bodies. Another topic raised during the session was the level of Saudization at one of the ministries. The Shoura Council expressed concerns on Monday on the slow progress made in the Saudization program implemented by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

A member of the council expressed surprise at the presence of 15,000 non-Saudi employees out of 80,000 workers at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and wondered about efforts exerted by the ministry to achieve Saudization.

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