Yep, in Saudi Arabia where stone age society has modern age resources, this definitely does happen.
People are murdered by cowards for being gay too. This is the world we live in.
If you were wondering how they got the info (at least in the past):
Last August, a former Twitter manager named Ahmad Abouammo was convicted of acting as a foreign agent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of two employees caught accepting bribes to pass along confidential user data in violation of the company’s privacy policy.
Wow that’s as shitty as hacking someone with a saw in an embassy.
In the fediverse that would be even easier and cheaper for them. Just show up to the house of the admin “give us the info we want, or else…”
Removed by mod
(since for them they do whatever they like on permanent holiday in the “western devil” countries)
Please…they do whatever they want in Saudi Arabia too, just behind closed doors.
Not all countries have freedom of speech or are democracies. Thailand also has a king and you can get in deep shit if you disrespect him. I’m sure it’s similar in North Korea and many other places.
I disagree with consequences over criticism of government but it is a reality in many countries.
One difference is that the US is happy to overlook the horrors that take place in Saudi Arabia because of the insane amount of oil money. Raytheon alone sells hundreds of millions worth of military shit to them every year. So they continue to stone, rape and murder innocent people instead of having their country turned to glass.
The recent case
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/1196776390/saudi-arabia-man-death-sentence-tweets
Things I found relevant
Alghamdi, a father of seven living in Mecca, had gained just 10 followers between the two anonymous accounts he ran on X. According to Human Rights Watch, he used the social media site to rail against alleged government corruption, but was mostly resharing posts by more popular government critics.
The account was absolutely tiny
What prosecutors often argue in these cases is that insulting or criticizing Saudi Arabia’s leadership poses a threat to national security and can destabilize society. Many of these trials happen behind closed doors.
The very weak justification. Personally, I feel like executing someone over an account with 10 followers is what will make me doubt an administration’s competence.
Alghamdi’s brother, Saeed Alghamdi, believes the case against his younger brother is actually meant to target him. Saeed Alghamdi is a well-known Islamic scholar connected to many of the kingdom’s most prominent jailed critics. He left Saudi Arabia in 2013 and founded the Saudi rights group, SANAD. He now lives in exile in the United Kingdom.
He said Saudi authorities have tried to convince him to go back to the kingdom, promising money and a good life if he returns and stops his activism abroad.
So the real reason might have nothing to do with Twitter posts, but rather to spite the man’s older brother for running a human rights group.
How they got the info is unknown:
It’s unclear how Saudi authorities were able to verify Alghamdi’s identity on X.
In other cases, it appears the identity of Saudi users may have been leaked, exposing them to arrest and long prison sentences. An FBI complaint and federal investigation in the United States led to the conviction last year of a former Twitter employee found guilty of failing to register as an agent for Saudi Arabia. He was also convicted of taking bribes in exchange for passing along the confidential user data of Saudi government critics.
And don’t forget where much of the $$$ used to fund the loan for the recent purchase of Twitter came from.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
But we accept this thanks to the oil money flowing everywhere. For example there’s a western guy that accepted 100 million in exchange of training a sports team and his tweet was “I’m proud of the job I’ve been assigned”. Heh, proud of the job or proud of the zeros he can see in his bank account?
deleted by creator
I thought they were referring to Christiano Ronaldo.
What a title.
