Gawker: valleywag, saudi arabia

How do you say "it's complicated" in Arabic?

Jackson West — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:40:00 EDT

With thousands of Arabic speakers already using Facebook, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg convinced that he can personally bring peace to the Middle East by convincing teenagers to trade bombs for pokes, it's only natural the company would want to expand in the region. Facebook is hiring an operations analyst who can demonstrate "fluency in written and conversational Arabic."

The company has been aggressively expanding overseas, and the effort has been working. Though growing the user base on the Arabian peninsula might prove difficult, with one Saudi Arabian woman murdered for using the site, which one sheikh has deemed "a door to lust." No wonder the Mormons aren't interested. Well, that, and there's no relationship setting for polygamy.

Arabic-speaking users shouldn't give up quite yet, though: Give fun-hating COO Sheryl Sandberg enough time, and she'll render the site safely and profitably sexless.

Saudi Arabia arrests blogger for "purposes of interrogation"

Jordan Golson — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:00:59 EST

Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan was arrested by government authorities and detained for "purposes of interrogation." Fouad says, in a letter posted on his blog, that he was arrested because he "wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia, and they think I'm running an online campaign promoting their issue." A friend of Fouad's claims he was the first blogger to post items in Arabic and to use his real name. And the first to be detained by Saudi state security. A Saudi official said "he is not being jailed. He is being questioned, and I don't believe he will remain in detention long. They will get the information that they need from him and then they will let him go." I'm glad I live in America. The worst I can get from a post is a critical comment from Nick Denton. Which is, despite rumors, a bit easier to take than a visit from some intelligence officers.