The 24-year-old man who has not been named, was given his sentence after the court in Medina, Saudi Arabia, found him guilty of "promoting the vice and practice of homosexuality."
According to a report in the daily Arabic newspaper Al-Watan, the man was arrested following an entrapment ploy by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV).
Posing as a potential suitor online, members of the CPVPV arranged to meet the now convicted man for a date.
When the man arrived at the designated meeting place, he was
greeted by an undercover agent and a number of other officers from the CPVPV.
He was then arrested and his phone was confiscated.
According to authorities, a search of the phone revealed "indecent images" and other incriminating evidence that apparently proved his "homosexuality".
During the court case, the 24-year-old man is said to have confessed to using his Twitter account to meet other men, and
for possessing "pornographic images of homosexual perversion."
The 450 lashes will be administered over 15 separate sessions.
It is not the first time that something like this has been reported in Saudi Arabia; in 2012 The Pink News reported a similar
incident when a man was arrested for using Facebook as a means to arrange meetings with other gay men.
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