Ex-Twitter Employee Gets Jail Time For Helping Saudis Gain Access To User Data | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Virginia Kruta.

    A former Twitter employee was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison after he was convicted of accepting bribes and providing user data to Saudi Arabia's Royal Family, the Justice Department announced on Thursday. Senior United States District Judge Edward M. Chen delivered the sentence.

    United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds, National Security Division Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olson, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp stated that Ahmad Abouammo, 45, who worked as a media partnerships manager for the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, had assisted in "accessing, monitoring, and conveying confidential and sensitive information that could be used to identify and locate Twitter users of interest to the Saudi Royal Family."

    During Abouammo's two-week trial, the prosecution laid out evidence that the former Walnut Creek, California, resident had begun accepting bribes as far back as late 2014 from an official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) - and without disclosing any of the gifts in accordance with Twitter rules, he had accessed sensitive user data in order to share information on political dissidents and critics of the Royal Family.

    According to the DOJ report, the former Twitter employee had also lied about his involvement in the scheme when the FBI questioned him about it in 2018 - even providing authorities with a fake invoice supposedly accounting for payment he received from a Saudi official.

    Some of the bribes Abouammo was convicted of receiving were a Hublot watch, valued at over $40,000, and two separate payments of $100,000, deposited in a Lebanese bank account in Abouammo's father's name - but that he was able to access.

    "This case revealed that foreign governments will bribe insiders to obtain the user information that is collected and stored by our Silicon Valley social media companies," U.S. Attorney Hinds said after the sentence was handed down, noting that Abouammo had been working with another person, but that person had fled the country to avoid prosecution.

    "The Court emphasized that defendant shared the user information with a foreign government known for not tolerating dissidents, and he did so working with his even more culpable co-defendant who fled the country rather than face trial. This sentence sends a message to insiders with access to user information to safeguard it, particularly from repressive regimes, or risk significant time in prison," she said.

    In addition to his 42-month sentence, Judge Chen ordered Abouammo to consent to a subsequent three years of supervised release and forfeit assets in the amount of $242,000 to account for the direct payments and the watch.

poll#128

Where do you stand on the wanton censorship by Big Tech Platforms, while retaining their Section 230 carveout indemnifying them for Slander /Defamation lawsuits and Copyright infringements?

  Big Tech Platforms have the right to Censor all speech providing they voluntarily relinquish their Section 230 Carveout.

  Big Tech Platforms DO NOT have the right to Censor any speech, while retaining multiple indemnifications by virtue of the Section 230 Carveout.

  I know nothing of this 230 talk, but "I do love me some social media".

476 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#169

Considering how abjectly corrupt and civilly abusive the Left has become regarding the corrosive effect of their elected leaders; their entrenched and ruling bureaucracy; employing their failed Education Industry as Indoctrinators; their collusive private sector operators, such as the terminally discredited Legacy Media and Big Tech censorship of Free Speech: What will be the best course forward for hardworking Middle Americans, including the Patriot Class?

  Withdraw from society, go underground and plan for a resurgence when it is feasible to do so.

  Work within the confines of better policy by the People's government, once good sense and sanity is restored in the electorate at large, to achieve such.

  Are you a crazy, nut-job Insurrectionist? Everything is perfect within our plan to achieve our intended goals for the Socialist Left.

  Secession to form a true Constitutional Republic.

437 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?