Latest news with #MuammarGadhafi
Engadget
15-05-2025
- Business
- Engadget
X is once again selling checkmarks to US sanctioned groups, report says
X has once again been accepting payments from people associated with terrorist groups and other entities subject to US sanctions, according to a new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). According to the report, X has not only accepted payments in exchange for its premium service, but in some cases has provided an "ID verified" badge. The report once again questions whether X is complying with US sanctions that restrict companies' ability to do business with individuals and entities that have been deemed a security threat. Last year, the TTP published a similar report that identified more than two dozen verified accounts that were affiliated with sanctioned groups, including leaders of Hezbollah and accounts associated with Houthis in Yemen. Many of those checkmarks were subsequently revoked, with X promising to "maintain a safe, secure and compliant platform." But some of those accounts simply "resubscribed" to X's premium service or created fresh accounts, according to the report, which is based on research between November 2024 and April 2025. "TTP's new investigation found an array of blue checkmark accounts for U.S.-sanctioned individuals and organizations, including several that appeared to simply re-subscribe to premium service or create new accounts after their old ones were restricted or removed by X," the report says. "Moreover, some of the accounts were 'ID verified,' meaning X conducted an additional review to confirm their identity." The report once again highlights verified accounts associated with members of Hezbollah, including one of its founders, as well as Houthi officials who "are making heavy use of X for messaging and propaganda." The son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi, whose account was previously suspended, also currently has a blue check , as does Raghad Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, one of Saddam Hussein's daughters. Both have been under sanctions for more than a decade. X didn't respond to a request for comment on the report. In response to last year's report, the company said it would "take action if necessary." However, it's unclear if the company changed any of its practices regarding who can pay for premium subscriptions. 'If a small team can use X's public facing search tools to identify these accounts, it's unclear why a multi-billion-dollar company cannot do the same,' Michelle Kuppersmith, the executive director for Campaign for Accountability, the watchdog group that runs TTP said in a statement. 'It's one thing to allow terrorists to have a voice on the platform; it's another entirely to allow them to pay for a more effective megaphone.'
Voice of America
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
49 migrant bodies found in 2 mass graves in southeastern Libya
Libyan authorities have uncovered nearly 50 bodies from two mass graves in the country's southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the latest tragedy involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country. The first mass grave with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, adding that authorities took them for autopsy. Authorities posted images on its Facebook page showing police officers and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets. The al-Abreen charity, which helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were apparently shot and killed before being buried. A separate mass grave, with at least 30 bodies, was also found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said nearly 70 people were buried in the grave, he added. Authorities were still searching the area. Later Sunday, authorities said they freed 76 migrants from the trafficking center and arrested three people — a Libyan and two foreigners — on suspicion of detaining and torturing migrants. Prosecutors ordered the suspects to remain in detention pending investigation. Migrants' mass graves are not uncommon in Libya. Last year, authorities unearthed the bodies of at least 65 migrants in the Shuayrif region, 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli. Libya is the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Gadhafi in 2011. Oil-rich Libya has been ruled for most of the past decade by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by an array of militias and foreign governments. Human traffickers have benefited from more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across the country's borders with six nations, including Chad, Niger, Sudan Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. Once at the coast, traffickers pack desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe into ill-equipped rubber boats and other vessels for risky voyages on the perilous Central Mediterranean Sea route. Rights groups and U.N. agencies have for years documented systematic abuse of migrants in Libya including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture. The abuse often accompanies efforts to extort money from families before migrants are allowed to leave Libya on traffickers' boats. Those who have been intercepted and returned to Libya — including women and children — are held in government-run detention centers where they also suffer from abuse, including torture, rape and extortion, according to rights groups and U.N. experts.
