In a recent article, Wired magazine outlines how an ongoing investigation has revealed that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s team successfully infiltrate Twitter’s platform to shut down anonymous critics within Saudi Arabia.
Wired reports in an article titled “A Saudi Prince’s Attempt to Silence Critics on Twitter,” adapted from the book Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman’s Ruthless Quest for Global Power, by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck, that in 2014 Mohammed bin Salman’s uncle King Abdullah was nearing death. Mohammed’s father, Crown Prince Salman, was set to inherit the throne upon Abdullah’s death, but anonymous Twitter users began spreading claims that Salman had dementia.
If the rumors became accepted as fact by Saudis and foreigners, Salman’s brothers might attempt to elevate one of his rivals to the throne, cutting Slaman off from his claim and dashing Mohammed’s hopes of one day inheriting the crown. It was then that Mohammed decided to take action. He allegedly put into action a plan to infiltrate Twitter and silence his critics on the platform, a plan that was seemingly successful in large part.
Wired writes:
Bader Al-Asaker, A kindly looking man with dark, rectangular glasses who wouldn’t be out of place at an IT conference, wasn’t really a government official in 2014. He worked for Mohammed personally. But as an employee of Crown Prince Salman’s son, he could gain access pretty much anywhere.
On June 13 of that year, according to the indictment, Asaker traveled to San Francisco to meet Twitter’s head of Middle East partnerships, an Egyptian American named Ahmad Abouammo. It was framed as a routine visit by an important figure from an important Twitter market. Abouammo showed Asaker around Twitter headquarters in San Francisco’s South of Market district. Asaker explained that he worked for an important prince who used Twitter extensively. The men exchanged contact information and arranged to follow up in London in the fall. During that meeting, Asaker gave the Twitter employee a gift: a Hublot watch worth at least $20,000.
Then came the ask. Twitter users were making trouble for Mohammed, including one nicknamed Mujtahidd, who had been brazenly criticizing the royal family and publishing rumors about senior members that often had a kernel of truth. It was a political mess, but it wasn’t criminal or terrorist in nature, so Twitter wouldn’t reveal the identity of such users to Saudi law enforcement. Asaker asked if Abouammo could help them find information on the people who registered these accounts.
Abouammo complied, using his access to internal systems to find Mujtahidd’s email address and phone number. It was a potentially reckless move by the Twitter employee, possibly unmasking critics of a government that locked up dissidents.
Read the full article at Wired here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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