McKinsey & Company under spotlight for targeting Saudi dissidents by kingdom’s government

American consultancy firm McKinsey & Company were reportedly complicit in the targeting of Saudi Arabian dissidents by the kingdom’s government, The New York Times reported at the weekend.

According to the paper, McKinsey created a nine-page report analysing public response to Saudi Arabia’s austerity measures announced in 2015.

The report found that three dissidents were eminently influential in proliferating negative coverage on Twitter. The Saudi government reportedly targeted and punished several dissidents after the firm identified them in a report.

In South Africa, McKinsey lost most of its clients after the emergence of its partnership with local consultancy firm Trillian which won them a R1.6 billion contract with power utility Eskom in 2016.

At the time, Trillian was controlled by the Gupta brothers currently being investigated on various platforms over accusations that they unduly benefited from their friendship with ex-president Jacob Zuma and fraudulently won government contracts worth billions.

Earlier this year, the firm’s global office apologised to South Africans for the work it did with individuals linked with the state capture scandals surrounding Zuma.