Meanwhile, a new report by The New York Times details an online campaign ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to monitor and attack what he considered to be dissident Saudi voices on Twitter. As part of the effort, trolls would harass and silence critical voices, including Jamal Khashoggi’s. Posts critical of Saudi Arabia’s military attacks in Yemen would be reported as “sensitive,” which can result in the posts being removed by Twitter. The report also details the grooming of a Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah, who was convinced by the Saudis to access a number of target Twitter accounts. Alzabarah was fired by the tech giant in 2015. And the Times reports the U.S. consulting firm McKinsey & Company carried out research that the Saudi government used to target dissidents.
NYT: Saudi Troll Farm Targeted Khashoggi, Other Critics on Twitter
HeadlineOct 22, 2018