Twitter ‘gave Saudi Arabia information about journalist who ended up dead’
Twitter ‘gave Saudi Arabia information about journalist
who ended up dead’
By Lucy Middleton Friday 9 Nov 2018 7:41 pm
Twitter has come under fire after another dissident
journalist was reportedly tortured and killed in Saudi Arabia.
Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Jasser was arrested on March 15
for allegedly running a Twitter account called Kashkool, which exposed human
rights violations by Saudi authorities and royals.
He then died while being tortured in detention, The New
Khaleej states – prompting fresh outrage over an alleged leak of information
that lead to his capture.
‘They got his information from the Twitter office in
Dubai. That is how he was arrested,’ a source, who wishes to remain anonymous,
told Metro.co.uk.
‘Twitter has become insecure for dissidents or critics.
Everyone speaks under threat and pressure.
‘The accounts of Saudi dissidents are spied on. We are
not safe using Twitter.’
The source also claimed that Saud al-Qahtani, the former
adviser to the Royal Court, leads a ‘cyber spy ring’ and has contacts inside the
Dubai Twitter office.
They allege that a so-called ‘Twitter mole’ handed over
information on Al-Jasser, leading to his arrest earlier this year.
They’re not the only one. After news of Al-Jasser’s
alleged death broke, many people began using the hashtag
#TwitterKilledTurkiAlJasser in an attempt to call out the platform for being
‘unsafe’.
‘We want justice for activists who arrested because of
Twitter,’ one person tweeted.
Another said: ‘Twitter [is] not safe any more’, while a
third wrote: ‘Twitter must revise its privacy policy. Literally, lives are at
stake here.’
Al-Qahtani, who was dismissed from his role over
journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death, alluded to the ‘three methods’ officials
use to unmask activists on social media last year.
In a tweet from 2017, he warned that fake names could not
protect dissidents.
‘Does your nickname protect you from the #blacklist?’
Al-Qahtani wrote online.
‘No. 1. States have a way of knowing the owner of the
name. 2 – IP can be identified in many technical ways. 3- The secret I’m not
going to say.’
The source said his tweet is ‘considered to be an
intended threat’.
A Twitter spokesperson stated that they work hard to
protect their users’ voices.
‘We do not comment on individual cases for privacy and
security reasons,’ they said.
‘Twitter has a well-documented, strong track record of
protecting user information and data.
‘We require law enforcement to meet a high legal
threshold and to undergo strict process when making information requests to
Twitter.
‘As a company, we will always err on the side of
protecting the voices of those who use our service.’
Al-Jasser’s alleged killing comes just one month after
Washington Post journalist Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul.
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