The Houthi militia forces internet owners to broadcast their sectarian and racist ideas

English - Tuesday 21 June 2022 الساعة 07:06 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:

The owners of internet broadcasting networks within the Sana’a districts complained about the extent of violations and abuses practiced by the Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, against them on an ongoing basis.

A number of internet network owners told NewsYemen that the militias' violations were not limited to the increase in fees and levies imposed on them.  And the attempt to control their networks under various justifications and excuses, and even reached the point of forcing them to adopt the dissemination of the militias’ trends and ideas within the networks’ pages and spaces on the Internet.

The pages of the networks that broadcast the Internet include the so-called network lounge, which includes sub-pages that provide broadcasting and downloading of series, movies, songs, and plays.  As well as broadcasting football matches, whether for the Yemeni national team or for Arab and international football.  Or other sports such as freestyle wrestling and other interests that they deem to satisfy the desires of their audience.

In this context, the owners of the networks added that the Houthi militia, through its officials in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which is subject to them in Sanaa.  They obliged the owners of the networks to add a special page for the so-called Quranic march, and to include in it the broadcast of everything related to the militias and their ideas, whether those of their dead founder Hussein al-Houthi.  Or its current leader, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and his lectures and sermons, as well as private zawamil, in addition to the investigations and information broadcast by the so-called Department of Qur’anic Culture, most of which are related to the claims of divine right and the state and the followers of those who are led by the flags of guidance.

The owners of the networks confirmed to NewsYemen that this obligation imposed by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is a blatant violation of their rights and contravenes the texts of the contracts signed with the Ministry regarding the work of networks and the financial aspect.  Which they pay for obtaining and broadcasting the service, in addition to the fact that this angered many people who contacted the owners of the networks and announced their refusal to include things related to militias on the networks’ pages at the expense of their rights as followers.