A critic said Twitter didn’t live up to its principle
of restricting access to information about
private individuals to the smallest possible
number of employees.
“If Twitter had implemented this principle, this
misappropriation of information would not have
been possible,” said Mike Chapple, who teaches
cybersecurity at the University of Notre Dame’s
Mendoza College of Business. “Social media
companies must understand the sensitivity
of this information and restrict access to the
smallest possible number of employees. Failing
to do so puts the privacy, and even the physical
safety, of social media users at risk.”
Abouammo was also charged with falsifying
documents and making false statements to
obstruct FBI investigators — offenses that carry a
maximum penalty of 30 years in prison if convicted.
At his appearance in Seattle federal court
Wednesday, Abouammo was ordered to remain
in custody pending a detention hearing set
for Friday.
His lawyer, Christopher Black, declined to
comment, as did Abouammo’s wife, who did not
give her name.
The complaint said Abouammo, a media
partnership manager for Twitter’s Middle East
region, and Alzabarah, a site reliability engineer
at Twitter, worked with an unnamed Saudi official
who leads a charitable organization belonging to
a person named Royal Family Member 1.
Prosecutors said a third defendant, a Saudi
named Ahmed Almutairi who worked as a social
media adviser for the Saudi royal family, acted as
an intermediary with the Twitter employees.