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| Wednesday's indictments of three people in the United States for spying on Twitter users critical of the Saudi royal family are the latest in a spate of allegations against the kingdom, which has long sought to stamp out online dissent (AFP Photo/Alastair Pike) |
Dubai (AFP) - The US Justice Department has charged three people, including two Saudis, with spying on Twitter users critical of the kingdom's royal family.
The trio
worked to unmask the ownership details behind dissident Twitter accounts on
behalf of someone prosecutors designated "Royal Family Member-1",
which The Washington Post reported was Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the
kingdom’s de facto ruler.
Here is a
look at how Saudi Arabia has cracked down on dissent and criticism on social
media.
'Lord of the
flies'
Saud
al-Qahtani, the royal court's media czar and a close confidant of Prince
Mohammed, has long elicited fear in the kingdom, earning nicknames such as
"troll master", "Mr Hashtag" and "lord of the
flies" for managing an electronic army to intimidate critics of the
kingdom.
Qahtani was
sacked over his suspected role in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal
Khashoggi last year. He has not appeared in public since the murder and his
whereabouts are unknown.
Last year,
The New York Times reported that Qahtani spearheaded an official Saudi effort
to harass and silence the kingdom's critics on Twitter by using troll farms.
Qahtani
also "tried to buy tools that would let him ban Twitter accounts" of
critics, according to a Bellingcat investigation.
In
September, Twitter said it shut down thousands of accounts worldwide for
spreading misinformation, including some artificially amplifying pro-Saudi
messaging as part of a regional propaganda war.
It also
shut down Qahtani's account, which had some 1.3 million followers.
Aggressive
diplomacy
Saudi
Arabia has also deployed Twitter to go after governments critical of Saudi
Arabia, including rival Qatar which has faced a Riyadh-led economic boycott
since June 2017.
A bitter
row erupted with Ottawa last year after an Arabic language tweet on August 5
from the Canadian embassy in Riyadh -- calling for the "immediate
release" of activists jailed in the kingdom -- infuriated the Saudi
government.
Saudi
Arabia subsequently expelled Canada's ambassador and froze all new trade, in a
clearly combative approach to international censure.
Multiple
Western officials said Canada was asked to delete that tweet, which in Arabic
is seen to have the potential to go viral in the kingdom, an absolute monarchy
known for its tightly controlled public messaging.
While the
message was also tweeted in English, a Western official said the Arabic version
was interpreted locally as an attempt to "communicate directly" with
Saudi people -- a serious infraction in the eyes of the kingdom.
Staying out
of trouble
Saudi
Arabia has more than 11 million Twitter users, according to marketing and
research firm Talkwalker.
Around 70
percent of the country’s 34 million people are "active social media users",
Talkwalker says.
But the
crackdown on dissidents has prompted many Saudis to shut down their Twitter
accounts -- including those engaged constructively in critiquing Prince
Mohammed's reforms.
Growing
nationalism also appears to be causing alarm.
In a
televised debate last year, Shura Council member Abdallah al-Fawzan said Saudis
had the right to brand someone a "traitor" if that person fails to
defend the country or chooses to remain silent.
Saudi
economist Essam al-Zamil was targeted by authorities last year after he tweeted
criticism of the government’s planned public listing of state oil giant Aramco.
Zamil,
"who had called into question Saudi projections of revenue from the Aramco
initial public offering", is on trial for alleged membership of the Muslim
Brotherhood, according to Human Rights Watch.
#UPDATE Two former Twitter employees and a third man were charged in San Francisco Federal Court Wednesday with spying on Twitter users critical of the Saudi royal family, the US Justice Department announced https://t.co/vKWRkuBDmG— AFP news agency (@AFP) 7 november 2019
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