Bahraini police officers and U.S. diplomats stood in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manama for a photo op on Tuesday. The officers had just completed an "Advanced Social Media Investigations training" provided by the U.S. State Department. The class, according to the State Department's announcement, explained "how terrorists and terrorist organizations use social media for operations, recruiting, and disinformation."
According to the State Department's own human rights report, "calling for the end of the monarchy" is "considered a terrorist act" in Bahrain, a small oil-rich kingdom. And the Bahraini government is indeed very interested in what people have to say online. Authorities rounded up thousands of citizens during a 2011 protest wave and allegedly tortured many of them. When dissident Nabeel Rajab criticized the torture on Twitter, he was jailed too.
