Saudi clerics blame Twitter for 'immoral souls'

A leading senior religious clerics in Saudi Arabia has said that Saudi citizens using Twitter will risk damnation.

Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh's declaration comes as a move to attack the US-based microblogging service, the Huffington Post reports.

According to the report, Saudi leaders fear that Twitter and other social media services are platforms for making the dissidents voice out their opinions against the government, despite the religiously conservative nation broadcasting their religious and political messages via television and radio.

The report further said that the fact that Twitter allows people to maintain multiple accounts anonymously, has let the site to become the Saudi dissent's refuge as even the ruler of the country has come under attack on the site.

Hoping that the authorities do not take action against him for using Twitter, Saudi protestor Abu Zaki however said that the government will not be able to follow everybody's Twitter username and will have to be selective in their search.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that the site's usage has ascended over the past few years with 70 percent of Arab Twitter users classified as 'youths', explaining that the wide discouragement of Twitter users in Saudi possibly stems from their recent history of 'Arab Spring' revolutions led by the youth.