A Saudi Prince's Attempt to Silence Critics on Twitter (2020) | Hacker News Reader

A Saudi Prince's Attempt to Silence Critics on Twitter (2020)

wired.com

148 pointsioab23 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24342948 - Sept 2020 (96 comments)

> his position at the company did allow him access to the private information of many users, including their phone numbers

Yep, and this is after them for years claiming "not using" your phone number after alleged "verification" until EU forced them to admit they were lying.

Good to know. I was recently wondering if I'm not being too protective about my phone number, but apparently not giving it away to the likes of Twitter was the right call.

Note that I believe it is now impossible to sign up for twitter without giving away your phone number.

As of a few months ago, it is possible to make an account, but it cannot use the API unless you give a phone number. Since that is what I wanted to try out, I backed off after learning that and so I don't know if there are any other limitations.

Last time I checked it was possible, but they will lock your account after a day or so until you verify the account with your phone number.

I checked just before writing my message and phone verification was required before even picking a username and password.

> Twitter lawyers brought Alzabarah in the following afternoon, accused him of improperly accessing user accounts

I guess I have to side with the FBI on this one. There was no reason for Twitter to contact the employee, they could have seen what the employee was doing by accessing all these Saudi profiles and then giving the benefit of the doubt to the FBI.

I recently managed to watch Fogel's _The Dissident_.

The Twitter manipulation campaign that's covered in the movie was fascinating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dissident

It's on Apple TV. It's a shame that Netflix appeared too nervous of the backlash to run it.

In related news, the US seems fine with bombing Iran-backed militias in Syria, but when news about MBS OK-ing the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi came out, crickets.

I don't understand. The news "came out" about the Kashoggi murder in a official government report from the Director of National Intelligence. Here it is: https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/...

Seem like pretty loud crickets to me.

Maybe give it a few days before you're frustrated there isn't enough killing going on. I bet the US can surprise you yet.

I bet you sanctions and whatnot are coming next week, at the very least.

Really? I’d be surprised. I know they imposed some sanctions on individuals from traveling to the US but that was it and none were imposed on MBS.

> I know they imposed some sanctions on individuals from traveling to the US but that was it

No, it was sanctions (asset freeze, bans on US entities doing business with them) plus visa bans prohibiting them from entering the US, not just “sanctions from traveling to the US”.

> and none were imposed on MBS.

That's pretty consistent with what the US in other cases, short of imminent war situations, the US tends not to directly sanction top leaders directly, sanctioning subordinates and particular state institutions.

From yesterday:

https://www.axios.com/khashoggi-report-365166be-7092-483c-b7...

Seems like they decided to release it on a Friday so the outrage is minimized. But why did the Biden administration bother to release the report at all?

> In May 2017, President Donald Trump made his first overseas visit, a trip to Riyadh. Not long after his arrival, the president toured King Salman’s new anti-terrorism center, which focused on tracking extremists on Twitter. Afterward, the president, his wife, the king, and Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt gathered around an illuminated orb at the center of the room and posed for a photo. Standing just outside the frame was the kingdom’s new social media specialist, Ali Alzabarah.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/257/584/509...

Alongside another 100+ people. This is a nothing-burger.

I'm not really sure what the article is going for with this sign-off. The Saudi government hired a spy, he did good work, and when his cover was blown they gave him a domestic job related to his work.

And? That sounds like exactly what you'd expect on all sides.

Yes, but the context is that the government that hired the spy is the same one we now admit had an inconvenient journalist murdered. It's certainly true that this bit of espionage was more or less routine, but it's evidence that Saudi espionage against US interests was not a one-off thing.

Is this the same guy who's now on the FBI's wanted list?

What is that orb?

I guess, you can buy one from https://www.palantir.com/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com