The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the biggest shareholder of Twitter behind Elon Musk. And I mean they are literally behind Elon Musk.
The gist of it is a true story that they threatened back in 2011 to ban all Jewish birds trying to enter their country. But seriously, they told Twitter executives that unless Saudi government informants were on staff and Saudi money could steer management decisions (e.g. censor women, promote Nazism), there would be no tweeting allowed.
The latest news is thus related to an old case.
Between July and December 2015, Twitter granted the kingdom information requests “significantly more often” than most other countries at that time, including Canada, the UK, Australia and Spain, the lawsuit alleges.
On 5 November 2015, just days before Twitter was confronted by the FBI about its concerns about a Saudi infiltration of the company, it promoted Alzabarah – now a fugitive living in Saudi. In response, Alzabarah sent his Saudi government contact, al-Asaker, a note, conveying his “unimaginable happiness” for the promotion. The note, the lawsuit claims, is evidence that Alzabarah believed al-Asaker had “arranged” or “been influential” in connection to the promotion.
Once Twitter was made aware of the FBI’s concerns, it put Alzabarah on leave and confiscated his laptop, but not his phone, which he has used extensively to contact his Saudi state contacts. Twitter, the lawsuit alleges, “had every reason to expect that Alzabarah would immediately flee to Saudi Arabia, which is exactly what he did”.
Fast forward to today…
Does anyone really wonder why the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia now would want to use their platform to pick a huge fight with its critics at the ADL? Examples of ADL reports:
- Incendiary Sermons in Saudi Arabia
- Largest Book Fair in Saudi History Exhibits Antisemitic “Protocols” and Other Hateful Titles for Sale
- ADL Analysis Finds Saudi School Textbooks Still Teach Anti-Semitic Incitement and Hatred
Elon Musk seems to be inconsistent, yet he’s consistently a coin-operated mule for China and Saudi Arabia.
He backs Russia against Ukraine whenever China yanks his leash. He attacks speech and demands censorship of Jews when Saudis give him a pull.
So of course a lapdog of Saudi Arabia is jumping up and down pretending he is very upset with the ADL.
Lawsuit: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:us:d204dd50-60eb-493a-b7d7-bc2c3c54641f
Exhibits: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:us:4e84a8d4-76b3-48f9-b97d-8ed84a89f5e6