Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Editor's Choice

News

Most Viewed

Day Week Month

In Focus

Ansarullah

Ansarullah

A Zaidi Shiite movement operating in Yemen. It seeks to establish a democratic government in Yemen.
Shiite

Shiite

represents the second largest denomination of Islam. Shiites believe Ali (peace be upon him) to be prophet"s successor in the Caliphate.
Resistance

Resistance

Axis of Resistances refers to countries and movements with common political goal, i.e., resisting against Zionist regime, America and other western powers. Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine are considered as the Axis of Resistance.
Persian Gulf Cooperation Council

Persian Gulf Cooperation Council

A regional political u n i o n consisting of Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except for Iraq.
Taliban

Taliban

Taliban is a Sunni fundamentalist movement in Afghanistan. It was founded by Mohammed Omar in 1994.
  Wahhabism & Extremism

Wahhabism & Extremism

Wahhabism is an extremist pseudo-Sunni movement, which labels non-Wahhabi Muslims as apostates thus paving the way for their bloodshed.
Kurds

Kurds

Kurds are an ethnic group in the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region, which spans adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They are an Iranian people and speak the Kurdish languages, which form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian branch of Iranian languages.
NATO

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.
Islamic Awakening

Islamic Awakening

Refers to a revival of the Islam throughout the world, that began in 1979 by Iranian Revolution that established an Islamic republic.
Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

A militant Sunni organization founded by Osama bin Laden at some point between 1988 and 1989
New node

New node

Map of  Latest Battlefield Developments in Syria and Iraq on
alwaght.net
News

Activist Sues Twitter for Giving Saudi Spies Access to His Personal Information

Saturday 16 October 2021
Activist Sues Twitter for Giving Saudi Spies Access to His Personal Information

Related Content

Twitter Boss Met Bin Salman after Saudi Spy Discovered

Twitter Workers Charged with Spying on Saudi Regime’s Critics

Alwaght- A prominent human rights activist and Saudi dissident is suing Twitter for hiring two men who acted as spies for the Saudi regime.

Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for the [Persian] Gulf Affairs (IGA), a think tank in Washington D.C., filed a 39-page civil complaint on Wednesday, accusing the defendants of complicity in Saudi Arabia’s “Twitter spy campaign” and of violation of federal electronic communication protection laws and various others.

In his lawsuit, he said that Twitter did not have the right to disclose or share his private information under its own privacy policy and should have done more to protect his information.

Last year, al-Ahmed, who is granted asylum in the US, sued Twitter, saying that two of the company's employees - Ahmad Abouammo and Ali al-Zabarah - hacked his account between 2013 and 2016 and leaked the personal details of his sources to Saudi intelligence.

US prosecutors charged Abouammo and al-Zabarah with spying for a foreign government in July 2020.

In the previous civil suit filed in the Southern District of New York, al-Ahmed sought damages from Twitter, saying that many of those exposed have since been killed or tortured.

One of those killed, al-Ahmed said at that time, was Abdullah al-Hamid, the founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, a human-rights group in Saudi Arabia. Al-Hamid died in the country’s custody in April 2020.

Now, al-Ahmed is suing Twitter again in US district court in the Northern District of California.

“I am doing this for the many victims that were lost to Saudi executions and prisons who followed my account,” he said.

Al-Ahmed also says in the lawsuit that his Twitter account was suspended in 2018 without explanation and has yet to be reinstated despite repeated appeals. The lawsuit states that the company has kept al-Ahmed’s Arabic-language account inaccessible so as not to displease the Saudi government.

“While Twitter may wish to play the victim of state-sponsored espionage, Twitter’s conduct in punishing the victims of this intrigue, including Mr. al-Ahmed, tells a far different story: one of ratification, complicity, and/or adoption tailored to appease a neigh beneficial owner and preserve access to a key market, the [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia],” the complaint states.

Al-Ahmed is seeking reinstatement of his Arabic-language Twitter account and unspecified damages.

His new complaint now brings 13 claims for relief under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, and California’s Unfair Competition Law. Additionally, he states claims for unjust enrichment, breach of contract, and negligent hiring, supervision, and retention, among others.

Twitter has declined to comment.

 

Tags :

Twitter Saudi Arabia Spy Activist Sue

Comments
Name :
Email :
* Text :
Send

Gallery

Photo

Film

Farmers in Poland are on the streets again to protest EU agricultural policies

Farmers in Poland are on the streets again to protest EU agricultural policies