Ex-Twitter worker receives over three years in jail for spying for Saudi Arabia

Former Twitter worker Ahmad Abouammo has been sentenced to a few and a half years in jail after being convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia, Reuters and NBC News report. Ahmad Abouammo was employed by Twitter between 2013 and 2015, throughout which period he used his place as a media partnerships supervisor for the Middle East and North Africa to entry private data of customers important of the Saudi authorities and go it to Saudi officers.

Reuters notes that Abouammo acquired a $42,000 watch as a present from a Saudi official, in addition to two $100,000 wire transfers. In change he appeared up data on two Twitter customers, together with cellphone numbers and beginning dates. After leaving the corporate in 2015 Abouammo continued to aim to affect Twitter to confirm Saudi accounts or take away posts highlighted by the Saudi authorities, in line with testimony from an FBI agent.

Abouammo was convicted in August this yr for charges including performing as an agent of a international authorities, in addition to fraud, cash laundering, and falsification of information. He was first charged in 2019 alongside one other Twitter worker who was accused of accessing 1000’s of Twitter accounts for the Saudi authorities. The second worker, Ali Alzabarah, left the US earlier than being charged. 

The case highlights the extraordinarily delicate data Twitter holds, given the quite a few excessive profile politicians, celebrities, and businesspeople that use its service each day.

Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company, which is 16.9 p.c owned by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, and the non-public workplace of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, declare to collectively be the second largest investor in Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover of the corporate. The US authorities has reportedly been wanting into whether or not Musk’s international funding companions might entry customers’ non-public knowledge on the platform.