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Tracking posts on social media made easy [Arab News (Saudi Arabia)]
[April 19, 2014]

Tracking posts on social media made easy [Arab News (Saudi Arabia)]


(Arab News (Saudi Arabia) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)    •  YOU ARE WATCHED: The abusers or offenders know for sure that they are being watched and that they can be reached, caught and punished.

Jeddah: Arab News The Arab Developers Company for technology and Internet services revealed that it is now possible to operate a monitoring technology system that targets both traditional and social media in all its manifestations, positive or negative.



The technology will allow the classification and sorting out of all posts on social networking sites as positive or negative, and provide easy access to the individuals or parties behind these posts that tend to destabilize security and disrupt human ideologies.

Anas Al-Salman, a technology expert, said the system called "The digital investigation laboratory and control of traditional and new media," enables access to the source of the post.


Detailing the features of the technology, Al-Salman said: "The system can read 13 different languages and has the ability for more, in addition to more than 570 Arab dialects and 278 Saudi dialects. The terms will be sorted in the system according to their meanings so that an alarm goes off to warn the monitoring government body that an abuse or a threat has happened on a particular social networking site. This will enable the body to immediately intercept and control the abuse before it aggravates." He added that the Kingdom's security and ideology has always been the target of abusers. "Social networking sites represent one of the most important means of undermining the Kingdom's security and ideology which can lead to the destabilization of communities," he pointed out.

Such threats, he explained, cannot be confronted by banning the interaction on social networking sites which has become a necessity. "If we stop this interaction, we will be slackening the progress and development of our country, in addition to putting curbs on the principle of free speech." He said that the answer lay in finding a safe means to monitor and control the Web content which would operate under government bodies giving a sense of security and peace of mind to users of these sites.

"Another important issue is that the abusers or offenders know for sure that they are being watched and that they can be reached, caught and punished," Al-Salman noted.

He said that the sensitivity of the system requires that it is only available to governments and not the public.

"The system has already been operating in the United States and a number of European countries for several years and has resulted in the arrest of offenders and abusers," he said. It is partially applicable in a number of Saudi government bodies, he said, confirming that the system does not touch on the personal freedoms of others.

"We are talking here about the infringements on the freedoms of others and insinuating poisonous thoughts and ideologies which negatively affect the society's beliefs and values and disrupt its stability," he pointed out.

He said the technology infrastructure of the Kingdom does not contain all the security applications required. "It is already undisciplined and lacks the integrated legislation which means that there is an urgent need to use the already known international standards," he added.

Al-Salman said the concerned government bodies insist on employing advanced technology systems to enhance and strengthen the security of the country and the safety of its citizens. "Such bodies are aware of the size of the networking activity on social media sites. The abusive accounts on these sites are under the control of the digital investigation laboratory and control of traditional and new media," he said.

(c) 2014 Arab News All rights reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company

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