Filings in California’s District Court on November 5, 2019, reveals that two former Twitter employees named Ahmad Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah are now charged under prosecutions of spying on Saudi’s dissidents using Twitter platform.
Official To Saudi Rather Than Twitter.
Being active in the years in 2013-15, Abouammo is alleged with accessing the private information (email, up address, phone number) of a critic who has more than one million followers. Whereas, Ali Alzabarah has been accused of mining into 6000 accounts of Twitter’s database!
David L. Anderson, a US attorney involved in this 24-page filing said, “The criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that Saudi agents mined Twitter’s internal systems for personal information about known Saudi critics and thousands of other Twitter users. We will not allow U.S. companies or U.S. technology to become tools of foreign repression in violation of U.S. law.”
Along with these two, another Saudi citizens named Ahmed Almutairi too has been accused of spying and acting as a major middleman between Twitter employees and Saudi officials. These three are further charged on cases of Destruction, Alterations and Falsification of records that supposed to be processed by FBI.
Adam Coogle, a human rights watch researcher believes that Twitter is the major platform where Saudi Arabian people get a chance to share their thoughts on suppressing issues.
Criticism
Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent reporter whose specifically criticized Saudi’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salaman and his government’s actions, was killed by his agents last year. His death provoked many critics and authorities, which further led to believe everyone that, Saudi Government is clearly suppressing voices. In the US, President Trump was criticized many times for being too friendly with Saudi’s government without considering much of Khashoggi’s cause of justice.
Source – CBS News