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Twitter Bans Former Saudi Aide Implicated in Khashoggi’s Murder

Saud al-Qahtani was once Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s powerful media adviser.

Twitter has banned an account belonging a former aide in Saudi Arabia’s royal court who was implicated in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Saud al-Qahtani once held a lot of power as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s media adviser and was the mastermind behind many of the kingdom’s online propaganda projects. His Twitter account, which had more than 1.3 million followers, was “permanently” suspended Friday because of unspecified “violations of our platform manipulation policies,” according to Twitter. The account had been inactive since Khashoggi’s murder in October 2018. Saudi, American, and Turkish officials all implicated Qahtani as being involved in the operation that led to the killing. In its statement, Twitter said it had also suspended hundreds of other accounts from several countries—including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt—to combat state-backed information operations.