Richest man is worth more than 100000000000 dollars we find out if france is an Unequal Society counting the cost on 00. The 1st time the earnings are accusing saudi arabia of this fine. Process where you would. Like. This or is it the act that were at this. Critical of the saudi government. Alone richard just britain youre at the listening post here are some of the media stories were covering this week enemy agents within a court case in the us threatens to expose the relationship between twitter and saudi arabia in taiwan they call them the red media news outlets with allegiances to beijing reporters in nigeria are being jailed for what prosecutors call cyber crimes and others call journalism and to unberth derangement syndrome shes made of the world like its the end of the wow world the helpline for grownups who cannot handle a 16 year old talking about Climate Change saudi arabias penchant for stifling political dissent and freedom of expression is not exactly breaking news nor are riyadhs armies of online trolls and bots patrolling twitter however there is a court case unfolding in california that reveals just how far the saudi government is willing to go to watch its critics and to silence them 2 former employees at twitter have been charged with acting as saudi agents back in 2015 and working with the authorities in riyadh given saudi arabias treatment of dissidents the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi being on the tortillas. In point those twitter agents may well have exposed other saudi activists to real danger unlike china and iraq saudi arabia allows twitter to operate on its territory partly because twitter is a surveillance tool its a Hunting Ground that the authorities use to find suppress and prosecute voices they disapprove of us but this story isnt just about saudi arabia it raises some serious issues about twitter working with questionable political actors sacrificing its stated principles for the sake of its bottom line our starting point this week israel. Any story about twitter saudi arabia and the way the authorities there deal with the platform begs the simple question why did the saudis even bother they rank near the bottom of the Reporters Without Borders and you will freedom of expression index along with the likes of china and iran countries that simply ban twitter and its not as though the saudis under crown prince mohamed bin sound man have been shy about using censorship the saudis could have banned twitter they could have done what china has done what iran has done instead theyve chosen a different strategy why he wants to use twitter as a propaganda and. Has the highest use of twitter in the world the 2nd reason is because he wants to catch people who. If you ban it youre not going to find them so he instance traits twitter and catches those people and finally in come a man is trying to show that saudi arabia is a country if he does twitter he will appear as a dictator and remember the outside world is a 3 room apartment for his vision 2030 because part of that track the Global Investors they would not allow twitter to exist in saudi arabia if they could not control the. What this allows the saudi government to do rather than censor is to coopt and influence the Information Space the saudi government have somehow been able to weaponize twitter as a platform that allows them to spread their influence if you had germany yes these to allow for freedom of speech in criticism but if you want you can use those tools equally as a method of surveillance and propaganda. The story and recent court case bringing all of this to light goes back to 2015 its taking place in San Francisco not far from twitter is Silicon Valley headquarters 2 of the companys employees alley hours about a saudi citizen and an american. Are charged with acting as agents for a foreign power saudi arabia while inside the u. S. The accused were well positioned to get access to twitters internal systems allowing them to see the email addresses phone numbers and ip addresses of twitter users critical of the saudi government by allegedly furnishing the saudi authorities with that information they exposed to those account holders ending their anonymity and according to the charges putting foundations including saudis and americans at serious risk we know the case of turkey has just said who is a local journalist who used to run an influential twitter account with the name of question cool his identity was revealed by these spies and twitter and hes been arrested in the news that he has he has been killed under torture we cannot confirm or deny that depending on the internet infrastructure of a country often the case in the gulf is that if you know someones ip address you can find a physical location so if you find an anonymous account for example thats criticizing the saudi government and you have a mole who tells you the ip address you would be able to send police to the location of that house and arrest people as i mean you would get a. Person but its not really relevant you know they could arrest the whole family so that could have been deployed there is strong it has invested in Surveillance Technology in order to hack accounts off dissidents and activists tarnishing that reputation abroad how much been said man so sensitive to any critical voice who tweets in english because it targets the audiences he wants to win. The disappearance of turkey aljazeera revealed how the saudis used twitter to police within the country and gave birth to the hash tag twitter killed tookie ill just. Use the saudi activist and satirist living in canada is an example of how the saudi surveillance state extends beyond its borders abdulaziz says personal information the twitter had on him was turned over to riyadh then used by operatives to target his computer with state of the art spyware and malware made in israel but the information that you can gain from twitter would allow whether its email address phone number is a better way to target those this event with spyware if you have the email you can do some social engineering deliver some malware to them via a convincing lie similar you can do that with an ip address or a phone number so those information points key because they allow the states in question the saudi government to refine the ways in which they might try to compromise the devices belonging to any dissidents. By the end of 2015 american investigators had informed twitter of the saudi spies within its ranks 6 months later the companys c. E. O. Jack dorsey met with the crown Prince Mohammed bin saddam on but according to multiple reports the saudi infiltration of twitter which dorsey knew about did not even come up. In june of 2016 twitter c. E. O. Jack dorsey met with the saudi crown Prince Mohammed bin given what we know now and given that reportedly there was no discussion at that meeting of the breach what do we make of that meeting and that photo i think its clear example of how financial interests. Promise investment in twitter. Took precedence over human rights in their desperate desire to attract funds to their companies that are actually creating a big problem and they will realize later that the policy that prioritize financial gain at the expense of human rights is futile. There is no way that a competent would not be aware of such an important thing as a Security Breach with his company its huge especially when that breach could have violated u. S. Law it would be the 1st thing on any Meeting Agenda so theres no way you could have that discussion without raising this issue its paramount. Unless dorsey felt the issue was off limits a saudi royal the crown princes cousin been already part of twitter and publicly traded companies tend not to bite the hands that invest twitters approach to politics in the region its also reflected in its decision to base its middle east operations in dubai like the saudis the emma roddys have a lamentable record on freedom of expression there is a suspicion widely helped the twitter basing its mideast in the emirates explains why so many accounts in the region dealing in political content or human rights get suspended with little or no explanation or recourse as for jack dorsey neither he nor his company get the kind of scrutiny mark zuckerberg. At facebook they are different platforms they do Different Things and they have different issues but they both have a lot to answer for. Is not a human right champion he is a businessman who is interested in making money and if making money involves sharing information other people should he do it facebook did it to google. Other american muslim companies arms for example whats the difference between twitter and i thought since these missives to contain human children nothing is just this one is businesses and social media the other Company Makes bombs and missiles at the bottom line is the saying. We are here to make money. Were looking at other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers you know actually ravi mena a nigerian journalist has been jailed in the capital abuja for 3 months now there have been calls for his release as well as protests held in his name who is he and whats the story behind this case the unis name is lisa woody and before we get further into a story richard its important to note that he ran in the president ial election in february he did very poorly less than one percent of the vote but there are politics at play here so it ends a news website called reporters its been online for 15 years and when we 1st covered the story about a decade ago he was running it from the relative safety of new york he broke many stories of state corruption before returning to nigeria in 2017 now since then hes been openly opposed to president mohamed the government even helping organize a protest movement called revolution now. So what is being accused of Money Laundering treason and cyber stalking president bill heidi now that last charge of cyber stalking includes what most would. Siddur standard journalistic practice following a public figure is online accounts leading sharing and commenting on related stories so he remains behind bars and hes not the only nigerian journalist in jail right now as you know hes not the only one there are at least 3 others and one of the most prominent cases is involves our budget lingo publisher of a paper called cross river watch he has also been behind bars since august he was put there just days after he to put it on corruption in his home state Nigeria Media are going through a particularly difficult time right now there are harsher measures being taken against them and there is an emerging trend of using the wide ranging Nigerian Cyber crimes act of 2015 to criminalize normal acts of journalism this is a situation we are going to be following very closely ok thanks alina. For months now hong kong and the mass demonstrations there have been making headlines but theres another story with some similar elements unfolding just across the South China Sea in taiwan theres been a tug of war over taiwan ever since 1909 when the island nation won defacto independence from Mainland China beijing wants to get taiwan back has made diplomatic efforts over the years to do so even resorting to occasional military threats and the news media are now a weapon and a flashpoint in this conflict earlier this year thousands of taiwanese protested against what they call red media domesticity news outlets controlled by pro beijing owners and accused of its not taking their editorial orders directly from the mainland voluntarily toeing the communist partys line in exchange for access to the mammoth Chinese Market and theres a lot to play for right now a president ial election is just a few months away a showdown between a Pro Independence candidate on one side and a pro beijing candidate on the other the listening posts johannah whos now from taipei on red media and the battle for hearts minds and votes in taiwan. Sunday june 23rd. There were 2 grandchildren in time and capital taipei. However that didnt deter protesters nearly 100000 of them from turning up to demonstrate against what they called great media or hung me in mandarin but in attendance on the weather that day was really bad we were speaking on a stage and we saw people gathering and listening to us i have to say as one of the organizers of the crater i was the only moved the young people standing 2 to 3 hours in the rain because their motherland and the freedom and democracy they thought cherish is under threat the old ways. The term red itself is relatively new you know obviously the color red is associated with the Chinese Communist party so red china red medio so this is a reference to both traditional and social media online media content forums facebook pages and whatnot that are deemed to be influenced by or if not controlled by the Chinese Communist party or. Taiwan status has been in dispute since 1949 that was the year to Chinas Communist Party led by mouths they dont overthrew the government of Chiang Kai Shek leader of the Kuomintang Party chungs forces fell back to taiwan claiming that they were still the legitimate government of of china beijing is never willing question its claim to the island. Sun she. Was powerless. For 70 years china has made flexing its muscles but economic and military involving itself in taiwans Political Affairs and more recently in its media. When tens of thousands of taiwanese took to the streets earlier this year to protest the socalled red media they have been one primary targets the want one group based in the Office Behind me once Media Outlets including its most prominent newspaper to china times stand accused of serving as a media mouthpiece for Chinas Communist Party pushing blatant probationer propaganda. In addition to the china times the one long group on c. T. V. And. One of taiwans most widely watched t. V. Channels the company didnt get it start in the News Business though it is time. Ones largest manufacturer of rice crackers and soft drinks. For the company and its chairman sayang ming Mainland China is not only a mega market the one thats according to an analysis of one once Financial Statements has netted them nearly 15300000000. 00 new taiwanese dollars in subsidies since 2007 that makes china worth staying on good terms with. Oh and also. The way in which 11. 00 pushes chinese propaganda is infamous and im not just talking about its actions this last year or so with a long history to the groups german firing man took control of the china times in 2008 the paper began to change dramatically over the following years as it aligned itself with beijing and its goal of reunification that idea will be out so. Investors like want want dont buy Taiwanese Companies to generate profits they use them as political assets in their dealings with beijing after want want took over china times and c. G. I. T. V. They started to avoid reporting or at least downplaying topics that chinese authorities find sensitive such as falun gong the Tiananmen Square massacre the Taiwanese Independence Movement of course and most recently their attitude towards this years hong kong protest songs on. Even more telling are the stories want once Media Outlets do cover and how they report them for instance beijing and its approach to reunification early things eating peanut toyo should a type sound. Right in. What you dont share yet one wants coverage in the run up to taiwans president ial election in january next year has also caught the attention of anti read media campaigners. The incumbent president in when he supports independence beijing has thrown its weight behind her opponent unquote are you who is more china friendly and across what months outlets its hung quo you who gets the lions share of coverage a study by Taiwanese NationalCommunications Commission reported that in may this year c t i. T. V. Gets 70 percent of its airtime to highlight. As you exhibit it with the play. So you do thank. Him for. We contacted want want to speak with them about their coverage and the criticism it has attracted so weve been emailing and calling back and forth with the want one group for a few weeks now and we thought that we were pretty close to locking down an interview but just no my producer joyce here got a call from the president of the china times what exactly did he say yes so mr wonderful caught me is that after having gone through our request and the points we want to discuss with him he doesnt want to give us an interview he said that our ally argument is biased and hostile and that he will give us a return statement and nothing more. Heres what the statement said according to the tonys constitution taiwan and the Mainland China are part of the same. Our news reporting is carried out in accordance with this principle yet we were vilified for this while those who violates the constitution are supported how absurd it is that we have a firm policy to not accept for influence somebody reduced as well as the foreign media have deliberately different the want one group we have already statement on this matter have also begun Legal Proceedings. One of those Legal Proceedings is a defamation lawsuit against a british publication the Financi