Twitter May Have Been Used By Saudis For Spying Purpose

On Saturday, The New York Times reported that, Twitter was notified by Western intelligence officials that several years ago Saudi Arabia had co-opted one of its employees for spying on the users’ account who are important to the government.

In late 2015, Twitter was alerted by officials to the Saudi mole mentioned, provoking the company to conduct an investigation, as the times reported information from anonymous sources. Although no evidence was found relating to the employee giving users’ data to the Saudis, the employees was fired in December 2015. According to the paper, Twitter also warned several users that their accounts may have become the Saudis’ targets in the same month.

The Times report gives us a broad look at how Saudi government try to silence its dissidents on Twitter. It has been reported that the Saudis made use of troll armies in threatening, harassing and shouting down people that disagree with the government, as well as distracting other users from discussing the government critically.

The report from The New York Times is also an instance of how social media can be manipulated for misinformation, spreading propaganda and other disruptive messages. Other services such as Google’s Youtube and Facebook are also in consideration regarding state actors’ efforts to interfere in rival countries’ elections via social media.

Twitter refused to make any comments on the report of the Times. There was no immediate response from the Saudi embassy in Washington to a request for comment.