Ex-Twitter employee sentenced to 3 years in prison for spying for Saudi Arabia 

A former Twitter employee has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after he was found spying for Saudi Arabia. Ahmad Abouammo was appointed at Twitter in 2013 and he worked there till 2015. As per Reuters report, Ahmad used his position as a media partnerships manager for the Middle East and North Africa to access personal information of users who were critical of the Saudi government and pass it on to Saudi officials.

Reuters report revealed that Ahmad worked for the Saudi government. During his tenure at Twitter he misused his position to access details about people who were critical of the Saudi government. He then passed on the details to the the Saudi officials. The report states that he once received $42,000 watch as a gift from a Saudi official, as well as two $100,000 wire transfers. In exchange, he shared information about two Twitter users including phone numbers and birth dates. Even after leaving Twitter in 2015, he influenced Twitter to verify Saudi accounts or remove posts that were critical of the government.

"The seriousness of the offense is something that is prominent in this setting because of the nature of the trust that was violated and potential serious consequences facing those whose details were exposed to a regime that won't tolerate dissent," US District Judge Edward Chen was quoted as saying by the agency.

Ahmad was convicted in August this year for acting as an agent of a foreign government. Saudi Arabia is against people who badmouth the government on social media. A citizen was once sentenced to 34 years in prison for tweeting against the government. Another Twitter user was sentenced to 16 years for committing a similar crime.

Back in August 2022, a woman in Saudi Arabia had sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for social media posts. As per Saudi laws "any person who employs information technology devices to commit defamation and inflict damage on others is punishable by imprisonment not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding 500,000 riyals".