https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzjmze/saud-al-qahtani-saudi-arabia-hacking-team

Earlier this month, security researchers revealed that the Saudi Arabian government tried to hack a prominent Saudi dissident and human rights worker who lives in Canada. This came just a few weeks after Amnesty International accused the country of using sophisticated spyware to hack one of its researchers. Then, the New York Times revealed that the Saudis have turned a Twitter employee into a spy who helped them keep tabs on digital rights activists by accessing their accounts and private messages.

These are just the latest revelations about Saudi Arabia’s aggressive push to quash dissent and track down activists online. The regime’s favorite tools online are Twitter bots to spread disinformation and pro-government propaganda, and spyware to keep tabs on those who dare to speak up. It’s part of a broader and years-long crackdown on free speech that has come to the forefront in the aftermath of the state-led murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian citizen whose columns in the Washington Post were critical of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.