A lawsuit has been filed in the United States against a former Twitter employee, who accused journalists, celebrities and others thin He helped users, but allegedly used his role to pass on information to Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Abouammo received hundreds of thousands of dollars and a luxury watch for the information, according to the US Department of Justice. Among other things, Abouammo is accused of money laundering and fraud. He is also accused of being a foreign agent.
Between 2013 and 2015, Abouammo worked on Twitter in particular with users from the Middle East. He fled to Saudi Arabia when the company confronted him with their concerns. In 2019, he was officially indicted. In the same year, Abouammo was arrested at Seattle Airport.
According to his lawyer, the work that Abouammo did for Saudi Arabia was just part of legal advice to the Saudis.
Twitter says it reviewed employee access to sensitive information in 2015, after Abouammo’s trip. A third party would also have conducted regular audits in previous years.
According to the indictment for Saudi Arabia, Abouammo had collected unique information about the equipment used, IP addresses and phone numbers. Another former Twitter employee, like Abouammo, collected information for third parties who is still on the run. More in the New York Times
