Abu Sin's vibrant personality compensated for a lack of verbal interaction, and the two seemed to be on the same charming wavelength. The language barrier that pushed them to find alternative ways of communication only added to the fun, and goofy videos of their "conversations" went viral as soon as they were uploaded on YouTube.
The couple immediately gained thousands of followers, but Abu Sin's fame came back to bite him. As he became popular, Saudi police claimed to receive complaints from vigilant citizens in the kingdom who, apparently, have nothing better to do than watch Americans and Saudis talk on YouTube. On Sunday, the teen was taken into custody in Riyadh. His arrest was recorded on camera.
In ultra-religious Saudi Arabia, where unrelated people of different gender rarely lay eyes on one another, and where most public spaces are gender-segregated, Abu Sin's actions, as he flirted with a women who not only consistently wore normal Western garb, but also was not a member of his immediate family, were perceived as ‘unethical' by kingdom functionaries monitoring the internet.
"His videos received many comments and many of the commenters of the general public demanded for him to be punished for his actions," a Riyadh Police spokesman named Colonel Fawaz Al-Mayman declared to the Saudi Gazette.
The Saudi daily Arab News also suggested that people in the kingdom wanted the teen to be imprisoned because his videos "made people laugh."
Some of the couple's former fans blame Crockett for what happened to Sin, but the US vlogger posted a video in which she denied responsibility for the teen's arrest because it was "not her fault [the videos] went viral."
