Many/most authoritarian governments can’t survive with a population that has access to a free flow of information. So to keep their citizens ignorant, quite, and in fear of speaking out or organizing they make up laws to silence them. Here is a list of these laws I have come across in news articles.
These laws and offenses are necessarily vague so they can be applied to situations as needed.
Saudi Arabia
This articled titled “Saudi Arabia investigates girls’ orphanage beating video” cites these laws
- “using the internet to tear the social fabric”
- “violating public order by using social media”
This BBC News article titled “Salma al-Shehab: Concern for Saudi student jailed for 34 years over tweets” cites this law
- aiding dissidents seeking to “disrupt public order”
- publishing “false rumours”
This article titled “Tala Safwan: Egyptian TikToker held in Saudi over ‘immoral’ video” suggests these offenses
- offends society
- harm public morality