FTC Reportedly Asks Twitter for Musk’s Internal Communications

The US Federal Trade Commission has asked Twitter to turn over interior communications relevant to Elon Musk, alongside with information and facts about new layoffs, with a target on how the staff members reductions at the social media corporation could have an impact on its ability to defend consumers, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The FTC has also asked Twitter to “identify all journalists” offered accessibility to organization documents and to give data about the launch of the overhauled Twitter Blue subscription support, according to paperwork seen by the Journal. Because Musk took around the enterprise in October, the agency has despatched a dozen letters to Twitter and its legal professionals, the Journal documented. 

“We are concerned these staff reductions impact Twitter’s capability to shield consumers’ data,” an FTC official wrote to Twitter’s legal professionals on Nov. 10 following the initially round of layoffs before that thirty day period, according to the Journal.

The commission also requested no matter whether privacy assessments were being performed prior to employing products alterations, as required beneath a Might 2022 consent order in which Twitter agreed to shell out $150 million for misrepresenting how it would use nonpublic person contact information.

The FTC is also in search of to have Musk testify in connection with the probe, the Journal reported.

The FTC failed to promptly answer to a request for remark. A spokesperson for the commission told the Journal that the agency is “conducting a arduous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent get that arrived into influence lengthy right before Mr. Musk ordered the business.”

Twitter, which no for a longer period has a communications department, didn’t straight away reply to a ask for for remark.

Musk, who procured Twitter in October for $44 billion, minimize around 50% of its workforce, or about 3,700 workers, in the initially month — layoffs that spurred lawsuits alleging workers’ rights violations. A lot more executives and workers quit, with so many defecting that Twitter buyers feared the web page would crash.

As Musk cut costs and employment, he also created quick improvements to the services, such as rolling out a new method for verifying accounts and reinstating banned accounts like that of previous US President Donald Trump, who Twitter had booted from the platform for violating the site’s guidelines versus glorifying violence.

Musk’s transfer to charge for capabilities that are normally no cost has irked people who use the system, specially mainly because the changes have been built with little detect. Twitter fumbled the rollout of an current verification technique final yr that permitted people to get a coveted blue test mark if they pay out a subscription cost.