## 5 Discussion
### The Impact of Using SNSAs on Political Engagement  
The current study's findings showed participants had a reasonably low to moderate level of political engagement (\(M\) = 2.83, \(SD\) = 0.85) in relation to SNSAs, while interviews outlined the useful opportunities afforded by SNSAs to express opinions, detect risks to the security of the community and participate in anti-corruption. However, there were limitations that could be considered equal but opposite to the benefits of SNSAs in this regard, limitations associated with the behavior of users and the capabilities of SNSAs. SNSAs were perceived as providing space for expressing opinions on global and local political issues, which also rated the second highest use of SNSAs (\(M\) = 2.99, \(SD\) = 1.13)on the political engagement scale. This supports [PERSON] and [PERSON] [60] findings that SNSAs helped university students express their political opinions with more freedom and without supervision, and facilitated pursuit and discussion of current political events [60]. In Chile, [PERSON] [106] found that opinion expression mediated the relationship between protest behavior and SNSAs use by adults aged 18 to 29. However, the types of activities including protests and choosing candidates or political parties, which might be considered common forms of political engagement in democratic societies were not part of participants' experiences in the current study due to the differences between the political environment in Saudi Arabia and that of other countries. Participants pointed out the inequalities between the delivery of opinions by famous users and by others, and the existence of extremist opinions expressed through political debate. This was reported by [PERSON] [3] and [PERSON] [107], who also found that extremism increased with online participation. Using SNSAs to contact officials of institutions was also reported. Similarly, [PERSON] [108], in the USA, found SNSAs helped in campaigning by joining people within online groups to voice their political opinions in such a way that could not exist elsewhere. However, participants in the current study found the reaction from institutions was low, which was attributed to a lack of official SNSAs adoption, misuse of SNSAs, or lack of awareness of users to discuss their claims on SNSAs. From this perspective, [PERSON] [109] asserted the importance of adopting SNSAs to increase organizational performance in Saudi Arabia. [PERSON] [110] stated that successful assimilation of SNSAs in the Saudi community was associated with individual, technological, and institutional factors including social values, family structure, public transparency, and religious information. Interviews highlighted the role of SNSAs in detecting security risks by disseminating information related to the security of the community and warning users about extremist ideas. In addition, participants pointed out the role of official bodies in sending security advice via SNSAs. This is considered important in Saudi Arabia where the \"most active threat comes from both internal and external extremists\" [111]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [112] also asserted that SNSAs helped increase awareness of university students about community and enhanced their ability to discuss political issues from positive perspectives. However, recipients on SNSAs sometimes neglect this information and participate in controversial discussions. Participants noted that SNSAs can support monitoring, documenting, and diminishing corruption. The political engagement scale showed that using SNSAs for supporting anti-corruption received the highest rating (M = 3.35, SD = 1.18). This supports a Saudi study by [PERSON] [113], who reported that SNSAs encourage the culture of transparency and accountability in relation to detecting corruption and reduce the monopoly of corruption-related information. [PERSON] et al. [114], in the USA, maintained that using SNSAs by e-government helped to increase transparency and reduce corruption.