Ex-Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia


The Department of Justice on Wednesday charged two former Twitter employees with spying for Saudi Arabia, accusing the men of accessing information on Saudi dissidents who use the social networking site.
The DOJ alleges that in 2015, Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen, spied on three users, and Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen, accessed the personal information of more than 6,000 Twitter users, including prominent dissident Omar Abdulaziz. Ahmed Almutairi, a Saudi citizen with ties to the Saudi royal family, was also charged, and is accused of being the point person between Saudi officials and the Twitter employees.
Abouammo was arrested on Tuesday. Alzabarah and Almutairi are believed to be in Saudi Arabia, The Washington Post reports. All three men are accused of working with a Saudi official who runs one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's charitable organizations. This is the first time federal prosecutors have ever charged Saudis with spying inside the United States. For more on the case, and Twitter's response, visit The Washington Post.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.