A senior Saudi official and aide to Mohammed bin Salman is allowed to keep his verified account on Twitter. The said account currently has more than 2 million followers.
The Saudi official named Bader al-Asaker is accused of recruiting and paying Twitter employees to report on dissidents' anonymous accounts secretly.
Saudi Official Keeps Twitter Account
According to The Guardian, on Tuesday, Aug. 10, a US jury convicted one of the former Twitter employees on charges that he used his position at the social media company to spy on Twitter users on behalf of the Saudi government.
Two other named defendants, Saudi citizens Ahmed Almutairi and Ali Alzabarah, are currently on the FBI's wanted list, and both are believed to be in Saudi Arabia. They are accused of acting as unregistered agents of the country.
The former US-Lebanese Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo was convicted for his role, but it has raised new questions about Twitter's handling of the breach, according to CNN.
Some have pointed out that the chief of staff and close aide to Prince Mohammed, Bader Al-Asaker, is still allowed to maintain his account.
The infiltration of Twitter in 2015 helped the Saudi government to identify people who were criticizing the kingdom's government via anonymous Twitter accounts.
Spy on Parody Accounts
In one case that is said to be connected to the breach, a Saudi court sentenced an aide worker named Abdulrahman al-Sadhan to 20 years in prison for allegedly creating a parody account on Twitter to mock the Saudi government.
Prosecutors did not charge Asaker, but another indictment filed in July 2020 states that the aide was at the heart of the conspiracy.
Prosecutors had alleged that Asaker, who had headed the private office of Prince Mohammed since before he became the crowned prince, promised both Alzabarah and Abouammo gifts, cash, and even future employment in the government.
This is in exchange for non-public information about the Twitter users who were of interest to the government.
Asaker also paid more than $300,000 to an account in Lebanon under Abouammo's father's name.
Colin Sampson, an assistant US attorney, said that Asaker wanted to recruit a mole. After receiving a watch from Asaker as a gift, Abouammo started looking up information about parody Twitter accounts that were critical of the Saudi government.
The superseding indictment stated that Asaker personally met with Almutairi and Alzabarah in 2015 while he and Prince Mohammed were on an official delegation to Washington.
The government's account is confirmed by Almutairi's Instagram account, which shows him shaking hands with the crown prince while they were at the Ritz-Carlton in Virginia.
In 2021, he attended the Asian Champions League final at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, according to Astra Herald.
According to the indictment, after a couple of days, Alzabarah returned to California and started accessing Twitter's computer system, retrieving information about dozens of Twitter users, including accounts that mocked Prince Mohammed and the Saudi government.
While the FBI has said it is seeking information about Almutairi, his Instagram account shows that he was riding a motorcycle just a few days ago.
Related Article: Twitter Deletes Thousands of Bot Accounts For Political Use
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Sophie Webster
