SAN FRANCISCO – A former Twitter employee was arrested in Seattle this week and accused of spying on the Twitter accounts of thousands of prominent critics of the Saudi Arabian government.
The Seattle man, identified as Ahmad Abouammo, and one other Twitter employee were named in a complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that details a coordinated effort by Saudi government officials to recruit employees at the social media giant.
The workers were paid to look up the private data of Twitter accounts, including email addresses that can give up a user’s location, according to the complaint, which appeared to link Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful 34-year-son of King Salman, to the effort.
The accounts included those of a popular critic of the government with more than 1 million followers and a news personality. Neither was named.