An influential Saudi dissident who collaborated closely with Jamal Khashoggi was harmed in a security breach of the company, then known as Twitter Inc., by Saudi officials in 2014, as stated by a U.S. appeals court. In response, the company mentioned taking further legal action against the dissident.

Personal details about Canadian resident Omar Abdulaziz, a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, were exposed to Riyadh by a Twitter employee who used an anonymous account to access Abdulaziz’s information. This information was later acquired by the Saudi government to silence Abdulaziz’s criticisms.

The breach, dating back almost a decade and involving around 6,000 accounts, was uncovered in 2018 and had severe repercussions for Abdulaziz, including the incarceration of his family in Saudi Arabia. Saudi operatives also obtained Abdulaziz’s phone number, which was exploited by the Saudis. Citizen Lab researchers later revealed that Abdulaziz was targeted using NSO Group spyware while he was in close contact with Khashoggi, who was tragically killed a few months later.

Abdulaziz is currently facing challenges with both Twitter and X Company, owned by Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk.

Despite a recent appeals court ruling dismissing Abdulaziz’s lawsuit against the social media platform for negligence in preventing Saudi operatives from accessing his account due to not meeting California’s statute of limitations requirements, the court did recognize that Abdulaziz had standing to pursue the lawsuit based on alleged harm caused by the company’s actions. In light of this development, Abdulaziz intends to seek a review of the case where the court could reconsider its decision. Twitter claimed at the time that it was a “victim” of employee misconduct.

This incident highlights the ongoing threats faced by activists and critics of authoritarian governments who are subjected to harassment, surveillance, and violence, even in countries like the United States and Canada that were once considered safe havens. This trend has now spread to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India.

In 2020, The Guardian reported that Abdulaziz had been alerted by Canadian authorities about being a potential target for Saudi Arabia, advising him to take precautions to ensure his safety.

Ronald Deibert of Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s potential impact on cross-border repression. He warned that advancements made in regulating tools used for repression could be reversed, posing a significant risk to civil society.

In 2021, the Biden administration blacklisted Israel’s NSO Group due to concerns about the spread of its surveillance software and its threat to U.S. national security. However, NSO lobbyists are actively trying to reverse this classification through the Department of Commerce.

One prominent example of cross-border crackdowns on U.S.-linked dissidents was the brutal killing of Khashoggi in 2018. Following the murder, the U.S. imposed sanctions against several individuals, with President Biden later releasing an intelligence report implicating Prince Mohammed in the murder.

Abdulaziz stressed the importance of holding companies accountable for their users’ safety in a statement to The Guardian. No one should suffer due to a company’s failure to protect against hacks.

The Guardian did not respond to requests for comments from X.

Following Musk, X’s primary investor is a company led by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who himself faced imprisonment by the Saudi government in 2017. Despite not leaving Saudi Arabia or the UAE since then, Prince Alwaleed recently met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino to underscore the strong ties between X and his company Kingdom Holding, partially owned by Saudi Arabia.

During a visit to the Middle East, Yaccarino also met with Dubai’s leader Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. UK court findings revealed that Sheikh Maktoum’s agents used NSO spyware to target the phones of his ex-wife and her legal team in 2021.