A prominent Saudi dissident who worked closely with Jamal Khashoggi said he will take new legal action against X after a US appeals court said a 2014 security breach of the company (then known as Twitter) by agents of Saudi Arabia caused him injuries.
Private identifying information about Omar Abdulaziz, who lives in Canada and has been an outspoken critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was obtained by the Saudi government after Riyadh recruited two Twitter employees to access information about dissidents, including those who used anonymous accounts to criticize the kingdom.
The breach, which occurred about a decade ago and compromised around 6,000 accounts, was discovered in 2018 and had devastating consequences for Abdulaziz, including the imprisonment of his relatives in Saudi Arabia.
Abdulaziz has faced an uphill fight against Twitter and now against X, which is now owned by Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser.
This month, an appeals court sided with both California requirements. -year of prescription.
However, the court also rejected a lower court ruling that said Abdulaziz had no standing in the case. Instead, he said Abdulaziz had been harmed by the company’s alleged handling of the matter. Given that new finding, he is expected to request a full review of the case on Wednesday, in which a court could decide to review the lower court’s decision again. Twitter said at the time that it had been a “victim” of employee misconduct.
The case has once again highlighted the persistent threat against activists and other critics of authoritarian governments who have faced harassment, surveillance and threats of violence from abroad, including within countries like the United States and Canada, which were once considered relatively safe havens. government insurance. reach of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India.
The Guardian reported in 2020 that police in Canada had warned Abdulaziz that he was a “potential target” of Saudi Arabia and that he should take precautions to protect himself.
Ronald Deibert, founder and director of the Munk School Citizen Laboratory at the University of Torontowhich investigates digital threats to civil society, said it was concerned “that the progress made in mitigating transnational repression and regulating the tools used to carry it out, such as mercenary spyware, risk being reversed.” under the Trump administration.” ”.
“Indeed, there is good reason to worry that the administration itself could abuse those same tools to persecute migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who are being targeted for deportation, as well as investigative journalists who cover those topics. “Deibert said.
In 2021, the Biden administration placed Israel’s NSO Group, which sells surveillance software that has been used by governments to target journalists and activists, on a blacklist because it said the spread of the company’s spyware posed a threat to the national security of the United States.
NSO lobbyists have tried to overturn that classification, which is controlled by the commerce department. Trump announced Tuesday that he would nominate Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick, a strong supporter of Israel, to lead the department.
The clearest example of a case of transnational repression against a dissident with ties to the United States was the murder of Khashoggi in 2018, which occurred under the first Trump administration. The US Treasury Department imposed some sanctions against individuals following the assassination. Weeks after entering the White House, US President Joe Biden released an unclassified intelligence report that said Prince Mohammed had approved the brutal killing.
In a statement to the Guardian, Abdulaziz said: “I am determined to fight to the end because this legal battle is not just about seeking justice for what happened to me; It is about holding companies accountable for their responsibility towards their users. “No one should suffer the consequences of a hack because a company didn’t do its job.”
The Guardian did not receive a response to a request for comment from X.
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He has not left Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates since, but recently met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino in a meeting billed as a way to highlight the “current connections between X and Kingdom Holding,” his company. which is partly owned by Saudi Arabia. government.
Yaccarino also met Dubai leader Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on the same trip to the Middle East. Sheikh Maktoum’s agents used NSO spyware to attack the phone of his ex-wife and her legal team in the United Kingdom in 2021, a British court has found.