Snapchat cuts off Al Jazeera in Saudi Arabia, leading news posts to disappear

Snapchat might be famous for disappearing posts. But these ones have a little more geopolitical importance than most.

News service Al Jazeera has disappeared from Snapchat in Saudi Arabia, apparently after a government directive.

The makers of Snapchat are just the latest company to be dragged into a bitter dispute in the Gulf. Al Jazeera's staff called the decision "alarming and worrying".

Parent company Snap said that it had removed the posts as part of "an effort to comply with local laws in the countries where we operate".

It means that Al Jazeera will now disappear entirely from the "Discover" section of the Snapchat app. That curated section only welcomes a few media companies, and so until now Al Jazeera had been given prominence within the app.

Al Jazeera, which is owned by Qatar, has been accused by Saudi Arabia of promoting Islamist groups. The argument comes amid growing tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, along with other countries in the region including the UAE and Egypt.

Those countries have instructed Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera entirely, and have stopped their citizens from accessing the organisation's websites. But the news organisation claims such requests, like the decision by Snapchat, are about censorship.

Al Jazeera Media Network's acting Director-General Mostefa Souag said the decision was about "silencing" the network.

"We find Snapchat's action to be alarming and worrying. This sends a message that regimes and countries can silence any voice or platform they don't agree with by exerting pressure on the owners of social media platforms and content distribution companies. This step is a clear attack on the rights of journalists and media professionals to report and cover stories freely from around the world," Dr Souag said in a news story posted on Al Jazeera's website..