This archive report was first published on 7 November 2019.
On November 6, 2019, the US Department of Justice unsealed charges against two former Twitter employees accused of spying for Saudi Arabia.
According to court documents, the two employees, Ahmad Abouammo, a US citizen, and Ali Alzabarah, from Saudi Arabia, allegedly accessed personal information of Twitter users, including known critics of the Saudi government.
A third person, Saudi citizen Ahmed Almutairi, is also accused of spying, acting as an intermediary between the two Twitter employees and Saudi officials.
Abouammo appeared in a Seattle court on November 6, 2019, and was remanded in custody pending another hearing due on November 8, 2019.
He is also charged with falsifying documents and making false statements to the FBI.
Ali Alzabarah, a former Twitter engineer, is accused of accessing the personal data of more than 6,000 Twitter users in 2015 after being recruited by Saudi agents.
Twitter stated that it recognized “the lengths bad actors will go to” to try to undermine its service and acknowledged the risks faced by users who share their perspectives with the world.
