Twitter accused of helping Saudi authorities commit human rights violation
The social network “X”, formerly known as Twitter, has been accused in a revised civil US lawsuit in the United States of helping Saudi Arabia to abuse human rights of its users.
According to The Guardian, “X” has disclosed its users’ data, including their identity and private information, at the request of the Saudi authorities by three Saudi agents who infiltrated the California company, posing as Twitter employees in 2014 and 2015.
The level of cooperation “X” has shown to Saudi authorities is beyond what the company has previously done for the Governments of the US, Britain and Canada.
The lawsuit was brought to court by Areej al-Sadhan, the sister of a Saudi aid worker who was forcibly disappeared and then later sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Al-Sadhan’s lawyers say that “X” willfully ignored or had knowledge of the Saudi government’s campaign to ferret out critics but – because of financial considerations and efforts to keep close ties to the Saudi government, a top investor in the company – provided assistance to the kingdom.
A few days ago, Human Rights Watch condemned the death sentence for a Saudi internet user solely because of his activities on Twitter and YouTube, which the organization describes as an “escalation” of the government’s crackdown on freedom of expression.
Amnesty International’s statistics show that in 2022, Saudi Arabia had the highest execution rate after China and Iran.
Saudi Government has executed at least 92 people, including some innocent young Shiites, since the beginning of this year, more than half the number the Wahhabi-dominated Kingdom executed in 2022, namely 148 people.
