A former Twitter worker was found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia
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| A former Twitter worker was found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia |
According to a Bloomberg article, Ahmad Abouammo, a former employee of Twitter, was convicted of spying for the Saudi Arabian government. Abouammo was also found guilty on Tuesday by a federal jury in San Francisco of conspiring to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and record-keeping fraud.
Abouammo previously managed media partnerships at Twitter, where he assisted well-known individuals in the Middle East and North Africa in promoting their accounts. But he used his position to gain access to people who were critical of the Saudi government's email addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth. Between November 2014 and May 2015, Abouammo gave that information to Saudi officials in exchange for presents.
The Department of Justice accused Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah, another ex-Twitter employee, of espionage in 2019. Later, in 2020, the agency increased the accusations to include a third person, Ahmed Almutairi, who is accused of orchestrating the plot. The US government is still looking for both Almutairi and Alzabarah. Human rights campaigner Ali Al-Ahmed filed a lawsuit against Twitter last year, alleging that the social media site could have done more to safeguard his personal data.
According to Bloomberg, Abouammo was charged with conspiring to silence dissenters alongside a close friend of Mohammed bin Salman, the current Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. According to reports, Abouammo stated that he was simply carrying out his duties and blamed Twitter for failing to protect user data.
When Abouammo is sentenced, he might spend 10 to 20 years in prison. Twitter opted not to respond.
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