Mauritania's Online Journalism Director Hires Hackers

Kolna Aziz” (We all Aziz), a Facebook page created by a group of some young opponents of the Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, shared a screenshot of a conversation between a former “dissident” of a Mauritanian Islamic party and the President's media adviser, Abduallah Weld Hormat Allah. In the screenshot, the media adviser has urged the “dissident” to hire hackers to hack the online accounts of activists and opposition members.

صورة نقلتها صفحة أكلنا عزيز

Commenting on the picture, the page wrote [ar]:

الدولة الموريتانية تشعر بخطر المدونين الموريتانيين على فضح تصرفاتها المنافية للديمقراطية، فلجأت إلى رشوة القراصنة كي يقوموا لها بقرصنة من يعارضهم من المدونين والسياسيين

The Mauritanian state is feeling the upcoming threat of the Mauritanian bloggers to expose its anti-democratic behavior. That's why the state resorted to bribe hackers to pirate all the opposing bloggers and politicians accounts.

And there were comments about the issue by some bloggers. For instance, blogger Ahmed Ben Jedou tweeted:

@ahmedj_85: يظن الجنرال وكتيبته الألكترونية أنه بقرصنة حسابات النشطاء والتضييق عليهم سيحجبون الحقيقية ….قرصنوا وسنفتح حسابات أخرى تفضحكم وتكشفكم !!

@ahmedj_85: The general and his electronic unit think that they will veil the truth by hacking activists’ accounts and intimidating them…. hack us and we will activate new accounts which will expose and uncover who you are !!

Blogger Mohamed Abdou tweeted:

@medabdou: يصر النظام العسكري في #موريتانيا أن يثبت غباءه رغم كونه مسيطرا، سيطرته على الشعب مبنية على نوع مبتذل من الخداع

@medabdou: The military regime in Mauritania insists on proving its stupidity despite being in control, its control of the people is based on a vulgar type of deception

And he added:

@medabdou: قبل يومين أنتشرت تسريبات لحوار بين ملحق اعلامي في رئاسة الجمهورية واحد شباب الفيسبوك للتشويش على النشطاء

@medabdou: Two days ago, some leaks of a conversation between a media adviser in the presidency and one of the young people on Facebook to hack the activists was circulated

Blogger Bader Dari Elchingiti noted:

@baderdine1: رغم أنها ليست من العجب أن تكون صحيحة لكن هناك إشكالية في التأكد من صحتها فمع الفوتشوب وغيره تكمن الشبهات :)

@baderdine1:There is no wonder that this picture is correct, but there is a problem as well how to make sure it is not Photoshopped.

Elmokhtar Weld Mohamed Moussa answered him:

@moctarmm: هو لم يعد ملحق في الرئاسة هو مدير الصحافة الإلكترونية بوزارة الإتصال

@moctarmm: He is no longer an extension to the presidency, he is currently a director of electronic journalism in the ministry of communications

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