Saudi Arabia has faced criticism for human rights abuses and repressive laws, such as the one that says all Saudi women must have a male guardian.
In February 2019, INSIDER published an investigation detailing how a Saudi app called Absher allows men in Saudi Arabia to track and control where women travel. The reporting prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to launch an investigation into the app, which is sold on the App Store.
In the fall of 2017, the crown prince was reportedly behind a corruption crackdown that saw more than 200 people arrested and some detained for weeks in a Ritz-Carlton hotel. Saudi Arabia reportedly use coercion and physical abuse during the interrogations.
And according to Al Jazeera, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia has been on the rise: 133 people were executed in the first eight months after MBS became crown prince.