Twitter faces heavy scrutiny from lawmakers over security concerns raised by a whistleblower from Twitter’s executive team.
Congress has responded in force to recently released complaints from Twitter executive Peiter Zatko, who alleged that Twitter had not handled its users’ security appropriately and violated past settlements with the Federal Trade Commission. This, mixed with remarks by Zatko over the company’s handling of bot counts, has placed increasing pressure on the company to be penalized for its actions.
Some lawmakers have also called for immediate investigations and retaliation over the revealed whistleblower complaints. “These troubling disclosures paint the picture of a company that has consistently and repeatedly prioritized profits over the safety of its users and its responsibility to the public, as Twitter executives appeared to ignore or hinder efforts to address threats to user security and privacy,” wrote Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in a letter sent to the FTC.
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Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) echoed these remarks in a letter to the FTC and noted that the allegations implied a breach of a 2011 settlement with the agency.
Others have presented the revelations as a reason to pass additional legislation protecting user data. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) both said that if Zatko’s allegations are true, then they “reaffirm” the need to pass legislation to create legislation to establish a national privacy framework. The two representatives, who lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said they are “assessing next steps.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee also received the initial complaint and is working on setting up a meeting with Zatko, according to the Washington Post.
Twitter has challenged Zatko’s claims, saying he was out to harm the social media giant. “Mr. Zatko was fired from Twitter more than six months ago for poor performance and leadership, and he now appears to be opportunistically seeking to inflict harm on Twitter, its customers, and its shareholders,” Rebecca Hahn, the company’s global vice president of communications, said in a statement.
Zatko alleged in his whistleblower complaint that Twitter had “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in its security practices and failed to take sufficient measures to protect its users. This included allegations that the company had failed to provide updated software to its servers and that the executives overseeing security had withheld relevant information from Twitter’s board of directors.
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The former head of security, who has long worked with Washington and Silicon Valley on technology issues, worked at Twitter from 2020 to Jan. 2022, when Agrawal fired him.
The revelations in Zatko’s complaint could have legal implications for Twitter’s battle with Elon Musk. The company is attempting to force Musk to uphold his contract after the billionaire withdrew from his purchase of the platform, claiming that Twitter had lied about the number of spam bots. Zatko argued Musk’s suspicions about spam bots are “on target” and that the way Twitter determines “daily active users” is designed “precisely to avoid having to honestly answer the very questions Mr. Musk raised.”
