Elon Musk has been raising eyebrows for quite some time, but even more so when he acquired Twitter, and it's not exactly in a flattering light. The FTC is among those whose attention was caught by the tech mogul, as they investigate the events inside the company.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 03: Tesla CEO Elon Musk (C) leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building on February 03, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Closing arguments have wrapped up in the trial where investors are suing Tesla and Elon Musk, its chief executive officer, over his August 2018 tweets where he said he was taking Tesla private with funding that he secured. The tweet was found to be false and cost shareholders billions of dollars when Tesla's stock price began to fluctuate wildly allegedly based on the tweet.
Investigation Into Twitter
The Federal Trade Commission is looking deeper into how Elon Musk has been running the social media company. Specifically, the agency wants to determine whether Twitter has enough staff to protect its users' privacy after laying off a huge number of its employees.
A former executive from Twitter claims that the platform had security issues last summer which led to the FTC being more vigilant of Twitter's security practices, which had only been made worse as three of its top executives responsible for privacy, security, and compliance resigned.
Along with speaking to Elon Musk, the agency also plans to interview the former employees who were responsible for Twitter's privacy and security, according to The New York Times. The FTC also wants to know the exact role of Musk in his company and its management structure.
Since the company has solid many of the company's equipment, the agency also means to question whether the company has cleared the said devices of user data. The same goes for the company's plan with Twitter Blue.
The company is required to conduct security audits regularly as part of the consent decree the company agreed with, which allows the FTC to be regularly informed of how the company handles the data of its users, reports say.
This follows Twitter being fined $150 million for using user data for its advertisements. Former Twitter employees stated that the compliance required a lot of work, involving hundreds of people in the company's privacy, engineering, legal and security departments.
Read Also: Twitter's API to Remain Free for Bots With 'Good Content'
Claims of FTC Harassment
Musk expressed that the FTC probing the company is a "shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth." as mentioned by Engadget. The Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee agreed with this statement.
The Committee claims states that the federal government weaponized its authority to harass the company as Elon Musk acquired it. In under three months, the FTC sent over a dozen letters that made up over 350 specific demands.
It was also pointed out that some of FTC's demands had nothing to do with users' privacy and information. For instance, the agency wants to look into information regarding the journalists' work that is protected by the First Amendment.
The federal agency also intends to acquire internal communication between Twitter employees that involve Elon Musk, as well as those that were sent or received by the Twitter CEO since the day Musk acquired Twitter.
As mentioned in the press release of the Judiciary House Committee, The FTC also wants to look into why the company laid off the former Twitter employee and FBI official Jim Baker, as well as when the concept for Twitter Blue was first conceived.
Related: Whistleblower Claims Twitter Violates FTC Security Regulations As Engineers Still Use 'GodMode'
