Social networking sites in Saudi Arabia were filled with publications calling for the arrest of the Syrian Tik Toker, Sarah Muhannad, after she appeared in a video clip calling for the collection of aid and donations for those affected by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey recently.
TikTok appeared in a video clip, during which she talked about her “planning with a company” to collect aid for those affected by the earthquake in Syria, and asked her followers to enter a link to “donate to the victims.”
The video clip caused a state of discontent in Saudi circles, and some activists talked about the violation of the Syrian TikTok invitations to the laws in the Kingdom.
In Saudi Arabia, collecting donations without a license from the competent authorities is “an act that violates the laws in force in the Kingdom, including the law on combating terrorism and its financing,” according to the Saudi Ministry of Interior in a previous publication.
Earlier, the Presidency of State Security in Saudi Arabia warned against “responding to calls to collect donations and funds for charitable work outside the Kingdom,” stressing that this exposes the donor to accountability in accordance with the regulations in force in the country.
The Saudi State Security Presidency indicated that “the only party authorized to deliver donations outside the Kingdom is the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action.”
During the past few days, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center launched a popular campaign to collect donations for those affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
And on Friday, it was announced that 10 relief trucks had crossed the Bab al-Salama port, carrying food and shelter materials provided by the center for distribution in the Syrian areas affected by the earthquake.
The United Nations says nearly nine million Syrians have been affected by the earthquake and has launched an appeal for $400 million to cover the urgent humanitarian needs of those affected over the next three months, according to Archyde.com.
Saudi Arabia has sent two planes carrying aid to Syria since Tuesday, in a move that took place for the first time in a decade, according to “Agence France Presse”.
On the sixth of February, the deadly earthquake struck Turkey and Syria with a magnitude of 7.8, killing more than 43,000 people in the two countries and leaving millions more homeless.
The situation in northwestern Syria, where the opposition controls, remains particularly difficult, due to the slow arrival of aid to this region, exhausted by years of war.
About four million people live in northwestern Syria under the control of Turkish-backed fighters opposed to the Syrian regime, and the United Nations says that most of them depend on aid even before the earthquake.