In the summer of 2023, Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, a 55-year-old retired teacher, was sentenced to death by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for posts he made on Twitter and YouTube, criticizing the country’s ruling family and calling for freedom for religious clerics. His punishment was commuted to 30 years the following year, a sentence that Amnesty International said was still “ludicrously harsh.” More recently, Manahel al-Otaibi, a fitness influencer, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on terrorism charges for, among other things, tweeting about ending male guardianship over women and posting a photo of herself on Snapchat without an abaya. In February, Amnesty International said that al-Otaibi had been “forcibly disappeared” while in prison, a crime under international law; her whereabouts remain unknown, with her family and lawyers unable to speak to her for nearly two months.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal is a major shareholder of Musk’s company, and has called him a “strategic partner” and friend.
Posting on Twitter—now called X following Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover—isn’t so dangerous for everyone in Saudi Arabia, of course. In February 2024, for instance, X was used to announce the launch of Alat, a clean energy company and planned “world-class manufacturing hub.” The company was founded by the country’s crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman.
On X Business, a promotional hub offering “success stories” about companies who pay to advertise on X, the Saudi company’s digital marketing director sang the platform’s praises: “X was our go-to platform to announce Alat to the world and outline our vision of industrial transformation,” he said in a statement. “The fantastic outcomes prove just how powerful and precise this platform is for global brands. We will use these terrific insights to drive our future campaigns with X.”
Those “global brands” are quite likely to be based in Saudi Arabia. Of the 43 companies currently featured as X Business success stories, 17 operateout of the Middle East, with 11 of those based in Saudi Arabia. Some are governmental agencies and initiatives; those that are private companies include some with obvious ties to the Saudi royal family. The former category includes the Saudi Tourism authority, as well as an account advertising Riyadh 2030, a forthcoming city expo showcasing the kingdom’s appeal for doing business. Another X Business success story is an account for New Murabba, another project of the crown prince that’s been described as a “visionary urban development” in downtown Riyadh.
The use of X Business by Saudi companies is clearly beneficial for X, which has faced a flood of advertisers leaving the site. The Saudi companies featured on X Business depict the country as its ruling class is eager for it to be seen: a business-friendly tech haven where Western companies can safely operate and travelers can freely visit and invest.
But the ads elide what Human Rights Watch has called a “vast and violent crackdown on civil society” by the crown prince, whose boosters credit him with steps toward modernization while ignoring his government’s violence and repression. The U.S. government has said that Mohammed Bin Salman personally ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Domestic workers, including maids from Kenya, reportedly face extraordinarily high levels of brutality, sexual assault, and even murder. Migrant workers building the country’s vast infrastructure expansions also reportedly face abuse, dangerous conditions, and increased risk of death. While the country has recently said it will “welcome” LGBTQ travelers to events like the 2034 World Cup, Amnesty International says Saudis still face the death penalty over same-sex activity. Even before Musk took over, Twitter had been accused of enabling MBS’ crackdown on dissidents, becoming a platform for the wealthiest Saudis, according to reporter Jacob Silverman, while also becoming “a place for the government to propagandize, track dissident thought, and identify victims for MBS’s personal team of enforcers.”
Some of the richest and most influential people in Saudi Arabia have long been eager to align themselves with Musk—and some hold significant business interests in X. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Al Saud is a Saudi prince and businessman who chairs the Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), an enormous investment company; in 2022, he was one of the investors who backed Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, becoming Twitter’s second-largest shareholder after Musk. In November 2024, he welcomed X CEO Linda Yaccarino to Saudi Arabia for a visit, tweeting, “Our alliance in @x & @xai is solid… We’re an extension of Elon’s ecosystem. Regards to my friend & ally @elonmusk.”
After X was recently acquired by Musk’s AI company, xAI, Alwaleed tweeted that KHC and his private office remained the second largest shareholder of the new company, referring to Musk as his “strategic partner” and friend. Investor filings for KHC also boast about a “strategic partnership” with Musk and a “close relationship with Elon Musk and associated companies.” Alwaleed also tweeted an AI-generated photo of him and Musk standing together in armor in front of what appeared to be the throne from Game of Thrones.
Of course, Saudi Arabia isn’t the only government that’s used X Business to drive attention to its initiatives; the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography also used it to raise awareness for an upcoming economic census. Other U.S.-based businesses—a rubber bracelet manufacturer, a boxer shorts concern—also use it, and have been featured on X for Business, as have several international brands. But the disproportionate presence of Saudi companies on the page underscores just who is still willing to publicly back Musk’s social media platform.
As Musk continues his government takeover via DOGE, his companies are also planning an expansion into Saudi Arabia. In February, SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell reportedly met with officials in the country “to discuss space exploration and rocket technology collaboration,” per one local news source. In March, Tesla announced that it would soon begin selling cars in the country for the first time. Sales began last week, according to Reuters, with a dearth of Tesla chargers throughout the country—but also not a single anti-Musk protester in sight.
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