SAUDI ARABIA’S "PERMEABLE" INTERNET ICT

Abstract

Due to countless political, economic, and social interactions between China and the United States since China’s opening to the West in 1971, their economies have been inextricably linked. However, recent fundamental disagreements over governance of the internet have led to a contentious relationship. Both China and the United States have political and economic interests in "winning" the internet governance debate. Today, due to the political, social, and economic dynamics inherent in authoritarian countries across the globe, more of these governments may accept and use the Chinese internet model, thereby forcing the United States and other Western countries to acknowledge the legitimacy of a censored and filtered internet. This thesis seeks to answer a central question: Why does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have a "permeable" internet? The answer to this question may inform the strategies of Western nations attempting to counterbalance the Chinese "closed" Internet model through the U.S. "open" internet model.