Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The British "Metro" newspaper said that Twitter has come under fire after another dissident journalist was reportedly tortured and killed in Saudi Arabia.

Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Jasser was arrested on March 15 for allegedly running a Twitter account called Kashkool, which exposed human rights violations by Saudi authorities and royals. He then died while being tortured in detention, The New Khaleej states - prompting fresh outrage over an alleged leak of information that lead to his capture.

"They got his information from the Twitter office in Dubai. That is how he was arrested," a source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Metro.co.uk.

The accounts of Saudi dissidents are spied on. The source also claimed that Saud al-Qahtani, the former adviser to the Royal Court, leads a ‘cyber spy ring' and has contacts inside the Dubai Twitter office. They allege that a so-called ‘Twitter mole' handed over information on Al-Jasser, leading to his arrest earlier this year.

After news of Al-Jasser's alleged death broke, many people began using the hashtag #TwitterKilledTurkiAlJasser in an attempt to call out the platform for being ‘unsafe'.

"We want justice for activists who arrested because of Twitter," one person tweeted.

Another said: "Twitter [is] not safe anymore", while a third wrote: "Twitter must revise its privacy policy. Literally, lives are at stake here."

Al-Qahtani, who was dismissed from his role over journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death, alluded to the ‘three methods' officials use to unmask activists on social media last year. In a tweet from 2017, he warned that fake names could not protect dissidents.

The source said his tweet is "considered to be an intended threat".

Twitter have now said that the accusations against them are false. "We have teams around the world who work to improve the health of the public conversation," a Twitter Public Policy spokesperson said today, adding that "none of these policy enforcement teams are based in the MENA region at all."

"We rigorously limit access to sensitive account information to a small group of employees with extensive security and privacy training. No other personnel have the ability to access this information, regardless of where they operate."

He added "We are committed to protecting those who use our service to advocate for equality, individual freedoms, and human rights. We will continue to take steps to strengthen their privacy protections and overall safety."

Al-Jasser's alleged killing comes just one month after Washington Post journalist Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Arabic Version