Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salaman (MBS) refused to create an official Twitter account, while continuing to use a fake account.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that MBS’s advisors suggested more than once to create an official Twitter account for the Crow Prince. However, he refused the idea for fear of online criticism.
Since becoming in office, MBS has formed a digital team to control the opponents’ online activities, especially on Twitter.
In this regard, chief of global news for Twitter from 2013 to 2014 Vivian Schiller warned that Saudi dissidents should consider dropping their use of the social media platform in light of the outside role that a prominent Saudi billionaire, with close ties to his country’s repressive government, has in the newly organized company under Elon Musk, in reference to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
As part of the restructured firm, Alwaleed bin Talal has emerged as the second-largest shareholder on Twitter, with a $1.89 billion stake in the company.
That has raised new questions about what the Saudis, who notoriously infiltrated Twitter and stole personal data on dissidents several years ago, hope to get in return for their investment, according to Vivian Schiller.
“For dissidents or others who are operating anonymously, I would probably caution them about their continued use of Twitter,” Schiller added.
Such users should “take a look at the kind of information they provided [to Twitter] — cell phone numbers, etc. — when they logged in, and maybe quit the platform.”
The sources pointed out that IronNet has revealed that the former US National Security Agency chief Keith Alexander worked out a deal with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the cyber institute led by one of his closest aides, Saud al-Qahtani, to help the Saudi ruler train the next generation of Saudi hackers in early 2018, months before journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.
Alexander officially inked the deal with the Prince Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, and Advanced Technologies — a school set up to train Saudi cyber intelligence agents — at a signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., according to an announcement in early July.
The report pointed out that Saudi Arabia’s agreement with IronNet was part of a host of moves to step up its cyber capabilities, coinciding with a campaign against the kingdom’s critics abroad. Khashoggi, then a Washington Post columnist and prominent Salman critic, received a series of threatening messages, including one from Qahtani, warning him to remain silent.
IronNet’s agreement tied to the alleged mastermind behind the killing of Khashoggi is not listed on the IronNet website, and it is not known if the business relationship still stands — or what the extent of it ever was. IronNet and representatives of the Saudi government did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The report quoted former IronNet employees as saying that the Saudi relationship has largely been shrouded in secrecy, even within the firm.
The report further suggests that Qahtani’s role as enforcer on behalf of bin Salman, well known prior to the Khashoggi slaying, has closely followed the young prince’s meteoric rise as the effective leader of Saudi Arabia.
Qahtani took the helm of official state-backed efforts to expand Saudi Arabia’s cyber offensive capabilities in October 2017, when he was named president of a committee called the Electronic Security and Software Alliance, later renamed the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones.
Earlier this year, SAFCSP signed an agreement with Spire Solutions, a consulting firm that partners with a wide range of cyber intelligence contractors. Haboob, another cyber venture promoted by Qahtani, is a private venture that recruits hackers on behalf of the Saudi government. Haboob’s chair, Naif bin Lubdah, is on SAFCSP’s board of directors.
Observes have recently raised concerns over the Crown Prince’s extravagant spending on espionage activities and repression campaigns after several western media sources revealed the Saudi unprecedented spending over the past few years.
