Ten days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Abdullah Alaoudh was at his home in Washington, D.C. catching up with emails, when a warning banner flashed up on his screen. 

“Google may have detected government-backed attackers trying to steal your password,” read the text, advising him to tighten his online security.

Though the Google alert did not name names, Alaoudh was sure he knew which government was responsible — the one whose trolls have targeted him repeatedly on social media and which is holding his father, a prominent reformist, in jail. 

Alaoudh is a leading figure in a US-based group advocating for democracy and human rights in the Arab world. Known as DAWN, it was founded by the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, before government agents murdered him in 2018. Since then, it has been pressing the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to account for his suspected role in the killing.