But Abdullah Alaoudh, Saudi director of the Freedom Initiative, which advocates for the rights of detainees in the Middle East and north Africa, said he believed the Biden administration’s lack of attention to the issue helps explain the worsening human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, including ‘unprecedented level of executions and arrest of people over social media use.’”

“It shouldn’t require a federal lawsuit for a U.S. citizen to protect herself from Saudi Arabia’s thugs, but Areej has been left with no other options. We hope U.S. courts can provide them both with some measure of justice and protection that is sadly unavailable elsewhere,” Andrea J. Prasow, executive director of the Freedom Initiative, said in a statement.

“The novel case, filed under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, cites repeated security failures that allowed the informants working for Twitter to send information about thousands of anonymous users to the Saudi regime while royal funds were invested in the company, becoming one of its largest shareholders.”