The social media platform Twitter has been going through a great turmoil lately. After Elon Musk gave up on buying the company, Twitter sued Musk and the legal process began. The new information that has emerged after the views of both sides accusing each other shows that there are dark clouds on the horizon for Twitter. Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, the company’s former head of security, said Twitter lied about its bot account and security practices.
Twitter deliberately provided false information
Peiter Zatko, the former head of the company’s security division, claims that Twitter misled federal regulators about security and did not verify the number of bots on the platform. If the allegations made by Zatko are confirmed, Twitter could face huge consequences such as large fines and Musk’s victories from the legal process.
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Zatko was fired from Twitter in January for poor performance and ineffective leadership. Last month, Zatko filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating its agreements with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uphold certain security standards. Complaints, consisting of a total of 200 pages, were edited and published by CNN and the Washington Post.
The charges are huge
Some of the most important parts of the report, which includes quite serious allegations, are as follows:
Extensive access: Zatko reports that half of the approximately 7,000 people working at Twitter have access to sensitive user data such as phone numbers and the source code of the software. It is also alleged that this access is not closely monitored and that thousands of laptops have exact copies of Twitter’s source code.
Deceiving regulators: In 2010, Twitter entered into an agreement with the FTC to protect personal information. Zatko’s complaints show that Twitter repeatedly made false and misleading statements to users and the FTC and violated the agreement.
Twitter ignored bots: Twitter says less than 5 percent of its monthly active users are bots, fake or spam accounts. Zatko, on the other hand, says Twitter’s management of measuring this figure is misleading and that administrators are more interested in increasing the number of users rather than removing bot accounts. It is claimed that they are encouraged with bonuses of up to 10 million dollars to increase the number of users.
Collaboration with governments: Zatko also states that Twitter, at the behest of the Indian government, hired an agent and made sensitive Twitter data available.
User data not deleted: Finally, in the past, Twitter allegedly did not delete user data on demand. It is reported that this process is complex and spreads over a wide area among internal systems. However, a current employee reaches out to The Washington Post, reporting that the Project Eraser project, developed to ensure proper deletion of user data, has just been completed.
Complaints are under intense scrutiny
The social media giant did not remain silent in the face of these allegations. Twitter accused its former security chief of selectively presenting his information to make it sensational.
On the other hand, according to the information received, the FTC is currently investigating the complaints. Likewise, congress and senate committees are investigating these allegations due to national security concerns. If the allegations and accusations are proven to be true, significant fines could be imposed on Twitter. In addition, it is possible that this situation will affect the ongoing lawsuit between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter.
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