Saudi Arabia recently handed down a death sentence to a man due to his social media activity, specifically his tweets and retweets on Twitter, now referred to as X. Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a retired schoolteacher, with only 10 followers, saw his innocent posts being used as evidence against him by the regime. What’s even more concerning is the possibility that the platform has made repression even more effortless.
A separate U.S. civil lawsuit alleges that the platform, under the leadership of Jack Dorsey, facilitated human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia against its users. The case involves the sister of a former aid worker named Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for operating an anonymous parody account mocking the government. The lawsuit connects his fate to a pattern of behavior that includes Saudi Arabia infiltrating Twitter with operatives who provide private dissident information to authorities. According to the lawsuit, Twitter ignored warning signs related to this insider threat and even allowed one of the accused spies access to confidential data after receiving a complaint from one of their targets.
The details of what Twitter knew and when they knew it will likely be determined in court. However, one striking revelation from the lawsuit is that Twitter reportedly disclosed privileged user information to Saudi Arabia at a much higher rate than to the United States, Britain, or Canada. Many of these requests were classified as emergency data requests, which hackers have recently exploited to extract data from tech companies without following standard review processes. Shockingly, these requests were often approved within hours.
Critics argue that Twitter treated Saudi Arabia favorably due to financial reasons. Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the kingdom’s princes, who acquired a $2 billion stake in Twitter through Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Co., is one of the company’s largest investors. Negligence is also a possible explanation. Despite the dysfunction during Dorsey’s tenure, Twitter at least had some rules, even if they were not always followed. However, the current ownership by X suggests that the platform is now primarily driven by the owner’s whims. Furthermore, the company appears to be complying with most user data requests from every country.
Mr. Musk claimed his purchase of Twitter was motivated by his commitment to free speech. He now has an opportunity to revive his predecessors’ policy of protecting users from governmental overreach and improve on their practices.
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