Allegations Against Social Media Company X: A Lawsuit Raises Concerns Over Human Rights and Corporate Responsibility

In the United States, a lawsuit has been filed against the social media company X, which was once known as Twitter. The lawsuit claims that this company helped Saudi Arabia commit serious human rights abuses against its users. Here are the main points:

1. The lawsuit accuses the social media company of sharing private user information with Saudi authorities in 2015, and this sharing happened at a much higher rate compared to other countries like the US, UK, or Canada.

2. The case was brought to court by Areej al-Sadhan, whose brother, Abdulrahman, was taken away against his will and later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

3. The lawsuit centers on events from 2014 and 2015 when three Saudi agents infiltrated the California-based company. This led to the arrest of Areej al-Sadhan's brother and the exposure of thousands of anonymous Twitter users. Some of these users were reportedly detained and mistreated by the Saudi government because of their dissenting views.

4. Lawyers for Areej al-Sadhan claim that Twitter, under its then-CEO Jack Dorsey, either turned a blind eye to the Saudi government's actions or had knowledge of them but still provided assistance. This, they say, was influenced by financial considerations and the desire to maintain close ties with Saudi Arabia, a major investor in the company.

5. One of the people who suffered due to this situation is Muhammad al-Ghamdi, the brother of a Saudi scholar and government critic who lives in the UK. He was accused of having two Twitter accounts with just ten followers combined.

6. The crackdown by the Saudi government began in December 2014 when Ahmad Abouammo, who was later convicted in the US for acting as a secret Saudi agent, began sharing confidential user data with Saudi officials. Abouammo allegedly messaged Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide to Mohammed bin Salman, mentioning "deleting evil." This is said to refer to identifying and harming Saudi dissidents on the platform.

7. The lawsuit claims that Twitter was either aware of this message or chose to ignore it.

8. After Abouammo resigned in May 2015, he continued to contact Twitter to help with requests for identifying confidential users. The lawsuit alleges that he made it clear to Twitter that these requests were on behalf of the Saudi government.

9. The lawsuit also suggests that Twitter had plenty of warning signs about security risks to user data, including the threat of insiders accessing it illegally.

In essence, the lawsuit claims that Twitter knew about the harm being done to its users by the Saudi government but did not take appropriate action. It argues that the company's actions were influenced by financial interests and a desire to maintain a relationship with Saudi Arabia.