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France 24
France 24
World

‘Bring me his head’: The frightening Twitter hunt for a Saudi dissident in exile

Twitter Inc. TikTok Police Mohamed bin Salman Saad Ibrahim Almadi the United Kingdom United Kingdom FRANCE 24 Observers Internet Kingdom
The image on the left is a screengrab of a post where Rabih Alenezi, a former colonel with the Saudi police, announces that his Twitter account was pirated on March 17, 2023. In the image at the right, the account @fahadnoi offers up 10,000 Saudi riyals (2,400 euros) to anyone who has information on Alenezi’s location. © Observers

When a former colonel in the Saudi police force, now seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, took to TikTok in mid-March to explain live why he had left the police, internet vigilantes immediately put a price on his head. In the time since, a horde of Twitter accounts has been harassing the 44-year-old online, calling him a "traitor" and "doxxing" him, revealing information about his whereabouts. He says he now fears for his life.

“The threats are coming from all angles: TikTok, YouTube, Twitter… They want to kill me before I get political asylum in the United Kingdom,” Rabih Alenezi, a former colonel with the Saudi police, told the FRANCE 24 Observers team by telephone. 

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