Outrage as Saudi group tweets photo of jet flying towards Toronto’s CN Tower, amid diplomatic furore
The Saudi pro-government organisation Infographic KSA has apologised for the photo, which it said was intended to depict Canada’s ambassador flying home, and not a terrorist attack
A Saudi Arabian organisation has apologised for tweeting a digitally-altered image that showed a plane flying towards Toronto’s CN Tower – in an apparent reference to a 9/11-style attack – amid an escalating row over Canada’s call for the release of detained human rights activists in the kingdom.
Infographic KSA, a pro-government Saudi Twitter account, shared the image on Monday, hours after Riyadh announced it had expelled the Canadian ambassador and suspended new trade and investment with Ottawa.
Counting several Saudi diplomatic figures among its more than 350,000 followers, the now-deleted account is run by volunteers and managed by Saudi youth with an interest in technology and social media, according to an affiliated website.
The image, which showed an Air Canada plane aimed at Toronto’s skyline, attracted criticism soon after it was posted. Some saw the image as a veiled reference to the 9/11 attacks on the US, in which 2,996 people were killed after 19 hijackers flew airliners into the World Trade Center’s twin towers and the Pentagon. Fifteen of the hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Captions on the image spoke of “sticking one’s nose where it doesn’t belong”, while another warned: “He who interferes with what doesn’t concern him finds what doesn’t please him.”
