X (former Twitter) sued for aiding Saudi Arabia's human rights violations
X (formerly Twitter) has disclosed confidential user data in response to requests from Saudi authorities, and a lawsuit has been filed in the United States for ``aiding Saudi Arabia's human rights violations''.
Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses | Saudi Arabia | The Guardian
In May 2022, Alij al-Sadan, the sister of a Saudi activist who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, accused several people who worked as Twitter employees in 2014 and 2015 as agents of the Saudi government. , accused of leaking users' confidential information to an external party. According to the complaint, the leak of confidential information led to the arrest of Sadan's brother.
An amended version of the complaint was released by Sadan's lawyers in September 2023. According to the report, under the direction of then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Twitter either intentionally ignored the Saudi government's 'campaign to eliminate dissidents' or was unaware of the campaign. Despite this, it has been pointed out that the government supported the Saudi government due to its financial considerations and efforts.
The Saudi government's crackdown on dissidents using Twitter began around December 2014. Ahmad Abuanmo, who was convicted in the United States of secretly working as a spy for the Saudi government and giving false testimony to the FBI, illegally accessed confidential user information held by Twitter at the time. It seems that it started when they sent it to the Saudi authorities.
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In the latest lawsuit on the matter, Abuanmo used a direct message on Twitter to tell Saud Al-Qahtani, a close aide to Mohammed bin Salman , that he would 'proactively and retroactively remove evil, brothers.' It has been pointed out that he sent a message saying 'Yo.' The complaint notes that this comment 'demonstrates that Twitter could be used to identify and harm dissidents.'
Mr. Kaftani, who received a message from Mr. Abuanmo, was accused in the United States of murder for dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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The complaint states, 'Twitter either was aware of the existence of this message, or intentionally kept it from knowing that it was being sent on its own platform.'
Abuanmo apparently received a request from Salman's senior aide, Bader Al Asaker, to collect sensitive user information from Twitter, with Twitter saying it was 'representing an old partner of the Saudi government. It appears that the company is collecting sensitive information about users.'
The complaint also states that ``Twitter is fully aware of the security risks of providing confidential user information to the Saudi government, and may have detected unauthorized access by insiders.''
In addition, Twitter received a complaint from a Saudi user on September 28, 2015 that his account was compromised, but it was pointed out that he did not take any action to prevent the user from accessing confidential information. I am.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian authorities said, ``After receiving sensitive information about users from agents working within Twitter, they planned to submit an EDR (Emergency Disclosure Request) to Twitter to obtain information to verify the identity of users. 'It was,' he explains.
Saudi Arabia also claims that it issued an EDR and was approved by Twitter after accessing confidential information of two Twitter users who posted tweets criticizing the Saudi government in May 2015.
According to the complaint, Twitter responded to information disclosure requests from the Saudi government 'significantly more frequently' than most countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Spain, over the six months from July to December 2015. that's right.
When Twitter learned of the FBI's concerns, he suspended Mr. Alzabara, who worked as a spy for the Saudi authorities, and confiscated the notebook PC he used within Twitter. However, he did not confiscate his mobile phone, which he said he frequently used to communicate with Saudi authorities. Therefore, the complaint states, ``There were good reasons to expect Mr. Alzabara to flee to Saudi Arabia soon, and that was exactly the case.''
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