Anyone who tweeted about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the past two weeks saw major pushback on Twitter from accounts in Saudi Arabia. But that could slow down in the coming days. Twitter has now reportedly banned an unspecified number of alleged bots that were pushing pro-Saudi propaganda.
The revelation comes from an NBC News report about the âhundreds of accounts that tweeted and retweeted the same pro-Saudi government tweets at the same time.â But Twitter doesnât get all the credit for spotting the bot network. The accounts were first spotted by IT specialist Josh Russell, whose work was shared with the social media giant via spreadsheet.
One giveaway that many of those pro-Saudi accounts were probably bots? Hundreds were posting identical content using the hashtag #We_all_trust_Mohammad_Bin_Salman, a reference to the Saudi crown prince. Commonly called MBS for short, itâs widely believed that the crown prince ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went into the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2 but never came out. Khashoggi was reportedly tortured and murdered inside the consulate and then cut into pieces and smuggled out of the consulate in bags.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied having anything to do with Khashoggiâs disappearance, but top officials in the country have yet to come up with an explanation for why Khashoggi is seen on surveillance video entering the consulate but never leaving. The Saudis have warned that anyone spreading âfake newsâ about Khashoggiâs disappearance faces up to five years in prison. The Turkish government claims to have audio of Khashoggiâs murder, including evidence that he was being cut into pieces before he died.
For his part, President Trump, an unindicted co-conspirator who broke federal election laws, has said that there will be consequences for Saudi Arabia âifâ the royal family is behind the murder. Trump finally acknowledged yesterday that it âcertainly looks likeâ the journalist is dead. But Trump has also compared the situation to that of his Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of sexual assault by multiple women.
âHere we go again with you know youâre guilty until proven innocent,â the president told the Associated Press earlier this week.
Khashoggi, a Saudi national and permanent resident of the U.S., became an exile from Saudi Arabia not for his criticism of the Saudi royal family but because he criticized President Trump shortly after he was elected president in November of 2016. Khashoggi had questioned Trumpâs close relationship to Russia and what that would mean for Americaâs alliances in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia banned Khashoggi from writing and making TV appearances in the country in deference to the American president.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week, but was hesitant to assign blame or even ask hard questions. During an exchange with reporters yesterday, Pompeo didnât want to talk about Khashoggi.
From a State Department transcript:
QUESTION: Just the latest news, if you donât mind, Secretary. The ABC is reporting that a Turkish official says he showed you a transcript of the tape, the purported tape, and that they played you the audio. Can you respond to that?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, we asked you to ask questions about Panama. Do you have a question about Panama?
[…]
[Discussion about Mexico, Panama, and China]
MS NAUERT: All right, weâve got to wrap it up.
SECRETARY POMPEO: And I will take your Khashoggi question and only that one. Iâve seen no tape. Iâve seen no â or Iâve heard no tape. Iâve seen no transcript. And the network that reported that ought to pull down the headline that says I have.
MS NAUERT: Thanks, guys.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you for speaking with us.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Do you work for ABC?
QUESTION: No, but â
SECRETARY POMPEO: You should actually ask them. Theyâre peers of yours. You should tell them that the Secretary of State is on the record saying this, and that they shouldnât â they shouldnât do that. This is wrong to do to the fiancĂ© of Khashoggi. We should be factual when weâre reporting things about this. This is a very serious matter that weâre working diligently on. And so to put out headlines that are factually false does no one any good. You should encourage all your colleagues to behave that way. Itâs most constructive when the media tells the truth. Itâs very useful.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
The presidentâs son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been reportedly urging Trump to stand by MBS, allegedly saying that the crown prince âcan survive the outrage just as he has weathered past criticism,â according to the New York Times. But this international controversy doesnât appear to be going away anytime soon, especially as more and more companies distance themselves from the Saudis. Numerous business leaders, including top executives at Uber and Google have pulled out of a conference in Riyadh that starts October 23 called the Future Investment Initiative, also known as Davos in the Desert.
And even Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been forced to back out of the conference. Despite promises earlier in the week that heâd still be attending, Mnuchin was finally forced yesterday to say that he wouldnât be traveling to Riyadh later this month. Curiously, Mnuchin didnât specify why he wouldnât be attending.
âJust met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia,â Mnuchin tweeted.
What a profile in courage.
[NBC News]
