World · 31 January 2026
Saudi Arabia ordered to pay YouTuber £3 million for hacking.
The High Court in London has ordered Saudi Arabia to pay over £3 million to Ghanem al-Masarir, a satirist who criticized the royal family on YouTube. The court found the kingdom responsible for hacking al-Masarir’s iPhones using Pegasus spyware in 2018. Following the cyberattack, the comedian was stalked and physically assaulted by regime supporters in central London. Al-Masarir, whose show has 600,000 subscribers, described the surveillance as a violation of his privacy.
Reported by BBC · How we write briefs