https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/former-twitter-employees-charged-with-spying-for-saudi-arabia-by-digging-into-the-accounts-of-kingdom-critics/2019/11/06/2e9593da-00a0-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html
By Ellen Nakashima and Greg Bensinger
The Washington Post
November 6, 2019
The Justice Department has charged two former Twitter employees with spying for
Saudi Arabia by accessing the company’s information on dissidents who use the
platform, marking the first time federal prosecutors have publicly accused the
kingdom of running agents in the United States.
One of those implicated in the scheme, according to court papers, is an
associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who the CIA has concluded
likely ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last
year.
The case highlights the issue of foreign powers exploiting American social
media platfoms to identify critics and suppress their voices. And it raises
concerns about the ability of Silicon Valley to protect the private information
of dissidents and other users from repressive governments.
The charges, unveiled Wednesday in San Francisco, came a day after the arrest
of one of the former Twitter employees, Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen who is
alleged to have spied on the accounts of three users — including one whose
posts discussed the inner workings of the Saudi leadership — on behalf of the
government in Riyadh.
[...]
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