A former employee of Twitter was convicted for working with Saudi Arabia on spying on Twitter users.
According to the prosecutors, a former manager for Twitter was convicted of spying for the Saudi Arabia Royal family through sharing user data and for acting as an agent for the country, trying to disguise a payment from an official tied to the said family.
The accused was identified as Ahmad Abouammo, a dual U.S.-Lebanese citizen who reportedly helped oversee the relationships with journalists and celebrities in North Africa and the Middle East.
He was reportedly found guilty following a 2-1/2 week trial in San Francisco federal court.
In an exclusive report released by Reuters, it was revealed that “Federal public defenders representing Abouammo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Twitter declined to comment.”
Can there be more spies from other countries inside Twitter, and other social media companies?
A former Twitter Inc. employee, Ahmad Abouammo, was sentenced to 42 months in prison after being found guilty in August of spying for Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/XeZYY0DJLz
— The South Asian Insider Weekly (@thesouthasian) December 15, 2022
According to the Prosecutors, “Bader Al-Asaker, a close adviser to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recruited Abouammo to use his insider knowledge to access Twitter accounts and dig up personal information about Saudi dissidents,” the report added.
Moreover, the said accounts allegedly included @mujtahidd, which reportedly was a pseudonym for a “political agitator who gained millions of Twitter followers in the Arab Spring uprisings” after he accused the royal family of corruption and other misdeeds.
In addition, the Prosecutors also claimed that Abouammo has received at least “$300,000 and a $20,000 luxury watch from Al-Asaker,” concealing the money by “depositing it in a relative’s account in Lebanon and having it wired to his own account in the United States,” the report added.
According to the defense lawyers, what Abouammo did at Twitter was part of his job.
In a statement released by U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds in San Francisco, she argued that “The government demonstrated, and the jury found, that Abouammo violated a sacred trust to keep private personal information from Twitter’s customers and sold private customer information to a foreign government.”
Ali Alzabarah is a former colleague of Abouammo who was also accused of accessing Twitter accounts on behalf of Saudi Arabia.
Reports revealed that he left the United States before he was charged.
Meanwhile, Al-Asaker, the Saudi’s crown prince and Twitter are not among the defendants.
