Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 7 November 2019
US: Saudis recruited Twitter workers to spy on users

By DAISY NGUYEN a social media adviser for
Associated Press the Saudi royal family re-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — cruited Twitter engineer Ali
The Saudi government Alzabarah. The two met in
recruited two Twitter em- Washington. D.C., around
ployees to get personal ac- the same time the adviser,
count information of their Ahmed Almutairi, met with
critics, prosecutors said someone named in the
Wednesday. complaint as Royal Family
A complaint unsealed in Member 1.
U.S. District Court in San "Within one week of return-
Francisco detailed a co- ing to San Francisco, Alz-
ordinated effort by Saudi abarah began to access
government officials to re- without authorization pri-
cruit employees at the so- vate data of Twitter users
cial media giant to look up en masse," the complaint
the private data of thou- said.
sands of Twitter accounts. The effort included the user
The accounts included data of over 6,000 Twitter
those of a popular critic of users, including at least 33
the government with more usernames for which Saudi
than 1 million followers and Arabian law enforcement
a news personality. had submitted emergency
It also alleged that the em- This July 9, 2019, file photo shows pedestrians walking across the street from the Twitter office disclosure requests to Twit-
ployees — whose jobs did building in San Francisco. The Saudi government recruited two Twitter employees to get personal ter, investigators said.
not require access to Twit- account information of their critics, prosecutors said Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. Associated Press After being confronted by
ter users' private informa- his supervisors at Twitter,
tion — were rewarded with it cooperated in the investi- tools in place to protect victed. Alzabarah acknowledged
a designer watch and tens gation and said in a state- their privacy and their abil- At his appearance in Seat- accessing user data and
of thousands of dollars fun- ment that it restricts access ity to do their vital work." tle federal court Wednes- said he did it out of curios-
neled into secret bank ac- to sensitive account infor- Ahmad Abouammo, who day, Abouammo was or- ity, authorities said.
counts. They were charged mation "to a limited group left his job as the media dered to remain in custody Alzabarah was placed on
with acting as agents of of trained and vetted em- partnership manager for pending a detention hear- administrative leave, his
Saudi Arabia without regis- ployees." Twitter's Middle East region ing set for Friday. work-owned laptop was
tering with the U.S. govern- "We understand the incred- in 2015, was also charged His lawyer, Christopher seized, and he was escort-
ment. ible risks faced by many with falsifying documents Black, declined to com- ed out of the office. The
The Saudi government who use Twitter to share and making false state- ment, as did Abouammo's next day, he flew to Saudi
had no immediate com- their perspectives with the ments to obstruct FBI in- wife, who did not give her Arabia with his wife and
ment through its embassy world and to hold those in vestigators — offenses that name. daughter and has not re-
in Washington. power accountable," the carry a maximum penalty Investigators alleged that turned to the United States,
Twitter acknowledged that statement said. "We have of 30 years in prison if con- a Saudi citizen working as investigators said.q

Congress approves bill

expanding animal cruelty law

Florida Reps. Ted Deutch mal abuse, and the PACT lized society for maiming
and Vern Buchanan spon- Act will allow federal au- and torturing animals— pe-
sored the bill. Deutch, a thorities to stop heinous riod," Blumenthal added.
Democrat, said it "sends a crimes when they occur The PACT Act would pro-
clear message that our so- on the federal level," Gann hibit extreme acts of cruel-
ciety does not accept cru- said in a statement. ty when they occur in inter-
elty against animals" and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., state commerce or on fed-
noted that the bill was re- who shepherded the bill eral property and cracks
ceived overwhelming sup- with Sen. Richard Blumen- down on sexual abuse of
port from both parties. thal, D-Conn., called it a animals. While current fed-
In this June 19, 2019 file photo, a dog taken from a property Buchanan, a Republican, major victory to stop animal eral law bans the sale or
in Klingerstown, Pa., looks out from its cage during an animal said "the torture of innocent cruelty and make commu- distribution of videos show-
cruelty investigation. animals is abhorrent and nities safer. ing animals being crushed,
Associated Press should be punished to the "Evidence shows that the burned or tortured, it does
By MATTHEW DALY videos illegal. The new bill fullest extent of the law." deranged individuals who not prohibit the underly-
Associated Press would make the underly- The bill now goes to Presi- harm animals often move ing conduct. Law enforce-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con- ing acts of cruelty a federal dent Donald Trump. on to committing acts of vi- ment agencies including
gress has passed a bill mak- crime. Holly Gann, director of fed- olence against people. It is the National Sheriffs' Asso-
ing certain types of animal The Senate unanimously eral affairs at the advoca- appropriate that the feder- ciation and Fraternal Order
cruelty a federal felony. passed the Preventing Ani- cy group Animal Wellness al government have strong of Police endorsed the bill,
The bill would expand a mal Cruelty and Torture Act Action, said the measure animal cruelty laws and citing a well-documented
2010 law that made cre- on Tuesday, two weeks af- was long overdue. penalties,' Toomey said in a connection between ani-
ation or distribution of so- ter the House passed it on "We as a nation should statement. mal cruelty and violence
called "animal crushing" a voice vote. have no tolerance for ani- "There's no place in a civi- against people. q