Thursday November 7, 2019
I've Been Thinking:
According to charges filed in San Francisco, Saudi Arabia is directly
connected to spying on Twitter users in America between May 21, 2015
and November 18, 2018. Two dual citizens of the United States and Saudi
Arabia and one Saudi national were charged with accessing Twitter
details and delivering the data to the Saudis.
The case is shocking.
Two Twitter employees and one handler were responsible for collecting
the data of 6,000 critics of the Saudi regime. Not just their names,
and usernames - they also accessed the meta data, the material that can
show the geographic location of the user.
They did it In exchange for money and gifts.
Ahmad Abouammo, one of the dual citizens, was a media partnership
manager at Twitter. He received $300,000 and a $20,000 Hubolt watch,
paid by an unnamed person referred to as Saudi National -1.
Ali Alzabarah, the second Saudi/US dual citizen worked at Twitter as a
site reliability engineer. He was confronted for accessing private
Twitter info which was outside his job responsibilities. The next day
he resigned by sending an email from a plane. He was on his way back to
Saudi Arabia with his handler.
With the info gained from these spies the Saudi government boldly put in
a request to Twitter for information on 33 Twitter usernames in what
they called an "emergency disclosure".
Twitter admits that the nature of the industry creates "bad actors"
who will try to undermine its service and that the company "limits
access to sensitive account information to a limited group of trained
and vetted employees."
The company statement read: "We understand the incredible risks faced
by many who use Twitter to share their perspectives with the world and
to hold those in power accountable ... We have tools in place to protect
their privacy and their ability to do their vital work."
This entire episode is very troubling. The redeeming point is that the Saudis were charged and that the government was named.
If you remember, the 9-11 hijackers were Saudis. Mysteriously,
despite the fact that all flights in the US were grounded, private Saudi
planes flew returning many Saudi nationals to the kingdom. The United
States has and continues to block any move to investigate how the Saudis
were involved.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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