Two Twitter employees and a Saudi national infiltrated the social media platform to pass user information to affiliates of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Northern District of California. 

“The criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that Saudi agents mined Twitter’s internal systems for personal information about known Saudi critics and thousands of other Twitter users,” said U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson. “U.S. law protects U.S. companies from such an unlawful foreign intrusion. We will not allow U.S. companies or U.S. technology to become tools of foreign repression in violation of U.S. law.”