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When U.S. blamed Saudi crown prince for role in Khashoggi killing, fake Twitter accounts went to war
Craig Timberg and Sarah Dadouch, The Washington Post
March 2, 2021
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Saudi-based Twitter accounts using fake profile pictures, repetitive wording and spammy tactics sought to undermine the conclusion by U.S. intelligence officials, made public Friday, that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation that led to the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
One element of the online influence campaign apparently targeted an American audience by directly responding to tweets by several U.S.-based news organizations, including The Post, both before and after the Biden administration declassified the intelligence report detailing U.S. conclusions about Khashoggi s killing. The Saudi accounts sought to deflect blame from the crown prince, often referred to as MBS, who is heir to the throne and eff
Saudi-based Twitter accounts using fake profile pictures, repetitive wording and spammy tactics sought to undermine the conclusion by US intelligence officials, made public Friday, that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "approved" the operation that led to the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Kobiety w Arabii Saudyjskiej mówią dość polityka.pl - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from polityka.pl Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Saudi author and journalist Fahd Al-Ahmadi, who writes a column for the government daily
Al-Iqtisadiyya, recently sparked a heated debate among Saudis on Twitter by proposing a change to the Saudi national flag. The flag in its present form features the
shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith, There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger ) and beneath it a sword. Al-Ahmadi proposed to remove the sword, arguing that it does not suit the current age and also goes against the spirit of the Quran, which states that there is no coercion in religion. He also proposed that removing the sword will help to rebuff claims that associate Islam with violence. He added that many countries have changed their flags over the years, and that the Saudi flag itself has gone through several permutations, some of which did not include the sword.
Twitter in Saudi Arabia
In October 2007, the famous American
Time magazine published on its cover a headline describing Twitter as a “dubious” revolution. Inside the issue, the editor-in-chief dedicated a full-page editorial to discussing the tech giant’s impact on the world of communication and politics.
Time magazine was right. Twitter really did change communications from end to end. It not only transformed the digital world but also had a real impact on our culture, education, and economy. Most notably, the so-called Twitter “revolution” didn’t skip the Arab world. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been charting the way in terms of active users on social media networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. The past few months have seen a remarkable explosion in new users making use of these platforms in Saudi Arabia. According to Twitter, the number of platform users in Saudi Arabia increased from 11 million in 2019 to 14 million in 2020. Saudis use Twitt