Twitter 'gave Saudis information about journalist who ended up dead' | Metro News

Twitter has come under fire after another dissident journalist was reportedly tortured and killed in Saudi Arabia.

Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Jasser was arrested on March 15 for allegedly running a Twitter account called Kashkool, which exposed human rights violations by Saudi authorities and royals.

He then died while being tortured in detention, The New Khaleej states – prompting fresh outrage over an alleged leak of information that lead to his capture.

‘They got his information from the Twitter office in Dubai. That is how he was arrested,’ a source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Metro.co.uk.

‘Twitter has become insecure for dissidents or critics. Everyone speaks under threat and pressure.

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‘The accounts of Saudi dissidents are spied on. We are not safe using Twitter.’

The source also claimed that Saud al-Qahtani, the former adviser to the Royal Court, leads a ‘cyber spy ring’ and has contacts inside the Dubai Twitter office.

They allege that a so-called ‘Twitter mole’ handed over information on Al-Jasser, leading to his arrest earlier this year.

They’re not the only one. After news of Al-Jasser’s alleged death broke, many people began using the hashtag #TwitterKilledTurkiAlJasser in an attempt to call out the platform for being ‘unsafe’.

‘We want justice for activists who arrested because of Twitter,’ one person tweeted.

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Another said: ‘Twitter [is] not safe any more’, while a third wrote: ‘Twitter must revise its privacy policy. Literally, lives are at stake here.’

Al-Qahtani, who was dismissed from his role over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death, alluded to the ‘three methods’ officials use to unmask activists on social media last year.

In a tweet from 2017, he warned that fake names could not protect dissidents.

‘Does your nickname protect you from the #blacklist?’ Al-Qahtani wrote online.

‘No. 1. States have a way of knowing the owner of the name. 2 – IP can be identified in many technical ways. 3- The secret I’m not going to say.’

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The source said his tweet is ‘considered to be an intended threat’.

A Twitter spokesperson stated that they work hard to protect their users’ voices.

‘We do not comment on individual cases for privacy and security reasons,’ they said.

‘Twitter has a well-documented, strong track record of protecting user information and data.

‘We require law enforcement to meet a high legal threshold and to undergo strict process when making information requests to Twitter.

‘As a company, we will always err on the side of protecting the voices of those who use our service.’

Al-Jasser’s alleged killing comes just one month after Washington Post journalist Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/09/twitter-gave-saudi-arabia-information-about-journalist-who-ended-up-dead-8123873/