Fired Saudi Royal Court Adviser Drops All Titles in Twitter Bio
Fired Saudi Royal Court Adviser Drops All Titles in Twitter Bio
(Bloomberg) -- A week after he was fired from his role as a Saudi royal court adviser, one of the country’s most active officials on Twitter Saud al-Qahtani, has removed all references to his former titles from the social network.
Last month, al-Qahtani’s biography included an impressive list of jobs, including adviser to the royal court, supervisor of the Center for Studies and Information Affairs, and the president of several studies centers. Directly following his firing, he changed it to say that he was chairman of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones. Now, it states only that it’s a personal account.
The Saudi king issued a decree to remove al-Qahtani from his position after the killing of Saudi insider-turned-critic Jamal Khashoggi. Shortly after his removal, the former aide to the crown prince said on Twitter that he will forever remain loyal to his country.
With more than 1.35 million followers, al-Qahtani has become a polarizing figure on the network. He used his influence to create Twitter campaigns like “the black list,” in which he encouraged users to list names of traitors. al-Qahtani also made a promise in August of last year to pursue all “mercenaries” named on the list.
Al-Qahtani’s involvement in the Khashoggi matter remains unclear, but the New York Times reported that he was said to be the strategist behind an effort by Saudi Arabia-linked operatives who used Twitter to harass those, like Khashoggi, who criticized the kingdom.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nour Al Ali in Dubai at nalali1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Molly Kissler, Riad Hamade
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