voidly

Internet censorship in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia (SA) · · Atom

14
Censorship Score
Level
medium
Risk Tier
T2High
Trend
↓ improving
Global Rank
#14
Incidents
12

Overview

Saudi Arabia filters content based on religious and moral guidelines. VoIP services are restricted.

Evidence provenance
11 records from 2 sources
  • IODA6 (55%)
    ASN-level outage signals + BGP
  • CensoredPlanet5 (45%)
    Satellite (DNS) + Hyperquack (HTTP/S)

Every record carries a permalink back to its upstream measurement. Click a source label to drill into the raw data for Saudi Arabia.

7-Day Risk Forecast

Predictive AI

Machine learning prediction of censorship risk based on historical patterns and political events. Calibrated 2026-05-20 via isotonic refit on 810 live outcomes. See drivers + similar past events →

Loading forecast...

Multi-horizon shutdown forecast — Saudi Arabia

monotonic ok
Next 1 day
15.1%
Next 7 days
58.8%
Next 30 days
70.0%

Honest scope: this is a current-regime risk signal, not a shutdown-onset predictor. It reliably flags countries already in a sustained blocking regime; on the days a new shutdown actually begins its skill is at/below chance (transition-row AUC ~0.33). Why →

ML Intelligence

Atlas models · 2026-05-21

Composite signals from Voidly Atlas's ML model suite — censorship intensity, contagion follow-risk, expected shutdown duration and behavioral peers. Model changelog →

Voidly Score
18.5/ 100
▲ 4.72 vs yesterday
How this is computed →
Expected shutdown duration
~5days
If a critical shutdown occurs · IQR ±1d
Evidence grade mix (12)
A: 5B: 6F: 1
Grading rubric →
Try-first circumvention tool
Tor · anonymity-network · 80% probe success (partial)
Full evasion table →
Behaviorally similar countries
TH98%AE96%VN95%

Similarity is behavioral (how a country blocks), not political.

Recent Incidents

10 active
Confirmed: internet outage in Saudi Arabia
May 3
60% anomaly · 8 measurements
Internet outage in Saudi Arabia
May 1
77% anomaly · 2 measurements
Internet outage in Saudi Arabia
Apr 27
24% anomaly · 1 measurements
Internet outage in Saudi Arabia
Apr 24
3% anomaly · 1 measurements
Confirmed: internet outage in Saudi Arabia
Apr 8
25% anomaly · 27 measurements
View all 12 incidents →

ISPs in Saudi Arabia

Known blocked services

Some content categoriesVoIPLGBTQ+ content

Recommendations

  • Use Voidly VPN
  • Enable encrypted DNS
  • Use secure communication channels

Data

Measurements330,517
Blocked count45,131
Block rate13.7%
Last updated2026-05-23
API endpoint/data/country/SA

Protocol breakdown

324K
Web
3K
Telegram
3K
WhatsApp

Frequently asked questions about censorship in Saudi Arabia

Q01

Is the internet censored in Saudi Arabia?

+
Voidly classifies Saudi Arabia as medium (censorship score 14/100, risk tier 2: High). Saudi Arabia filters content based on religious and moral guidelines. VoIP services are restricted.
Q02

What websites are blocked in Saudi Arabia?

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Recent measurements show blocking or interference for: Some content categories, VoIP, LGBTQ+ content. The block-rate across all measured domains is 13.7% over 330,517 samples. Live per-domain status: https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain={domain}&country=SA.
Q03

How does Saudi Arabia's censorship compare globally?

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Saudi Arabia ranks #14 on the Voidly Global Censorship Index. The current trend is improving — block rates trending down.
Q04

What blocking methods are used in Saudi Arabia?

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Voidly's pipeline detects DNS poisoning, TCP-RESET, blockpage injection, TLS-RESET / SNI-based blocking, and ASN-level outages. The exact method per domain is in each evidence permalink (https://api.voidly.ai/data/incidents?country=SA). Methodology: https://voidly.ai/methodology.
Q05

How fresh is the data for Saudi Arabia?

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Voidly probes Saudi Arabia every 5 minutes from 37+ global probe nodes. Upstream OONI, IODA, and CensoredPlanet feeds refresh every 6 hours. The country snapshot was last regenerated 2026-05-23.
Q06

How can I check if a specific website is blocked in Saudi Arabia?

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Three options. (1) REST: GET https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain=twitter.com&country=SA. (2) MCP: npx @voidly/mcp-server, then call check_domain_blocked with domain="twitter.com" country="SA". (3) CLI: npx @voidly/cli check twitter.com SA. All three return current status, blocking method, and evidence permalinks.
Q07

Can I use a VPN to bypass censorship in Saudi Arabia?

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Use Voidly VPN Enable encrypted DNS Use secure communication channels The full per-country recommendation list is on this page below.
Q08

How do I cite Voidly's data on Saudi Arabia in a paper or article?

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Use the BibTeX or RIS export at https://voidly.ai/cite/SA (also linked from the Citation section below). Permanent incident IDs (e.g., SA-2026-NNNN) are issued for every confirmed event. License: CC BY 4.0 — credit Voidly Research and link back.

Cite this data

Voidly Research. (2026). Saudi Arabia Censorship Profile. https://voidly.ai/sa

License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution.

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