The sister of a Saudi activist who disappeared in 2018 is suing Twitter and Saudi Arabia for allegedly helping the Middle East kingdom prosecute dissidents by leaking its users’ personal information to authorities.
Image source: edar / pixabay-com
The civil lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco against the organized crime community follows a criminal case in which a former Twitter employee was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison last year for spying for Saudi Arabia. The civil lawsuit alleges that the Middle East kingdom fought numerous dissidents by gaining access to confidential Twitter data through social network operatives.
Saudi dissident Areej Al-Sadhan has accused former Twitter member Ahmad Abouammo of involvement in the disappearance of her brother Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan. According to her, he was kidnapped by Saudi Arabia’s secret police in 2018 for publishing articles critical of the kingdom on the social network and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She also claims that her brother was subjected to numerous tortures.
Twitter is named as a defendant in the lawsuit because the social network’s employees transmitted confidential data of Saudi dissidents and thereby suppressed dissent. And the country’s authorities have invested in the social network through private investment funds. Twitter did not comment on the lawsuit.
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