Home Democrats Demand Solutions From Twitter CEO Agrawal On Whistleblower’s Safety Allegations
Topline
In a Thursday letter, the Home Committee on Homeland Safety requested Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to reply questions sparked by incendiary allegations of safety violations from the social media firm’s former head of safety Peiter Zatko.
The Key Information
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.Rep. Bennie Thompson (D.Miss.), and Rep. Yvette. Clarke (D.Mass.), chairwoman of the cybersecurity subcommittee, expressed their “deep concern” concerning the allegations made by Zatko in a whistleblower criticism filed with the Division of Justice, the Securities and Change Fee and the Federal Commerce Fee final month and first reported on Tuesday.
Zatko labored for Twitter between late 2020 and January 2022. He claimed that Twitter had did not safeguard person information, and that it knowingly misled regulators and buyers.
Clarke and Thompson famous Twitter has a “staggering safety to-do listing” if any of Zatko’s assertions are true.
The lawmakers requested written responses from Agrawal by September 8 on eight questions associated to Zatko’s assertions, particularly specializing in a declare that Twitter knew its staff targeted on content material moderation was understaffed and the way it plans to deal with political misinformation forward of November’s midterm elections.
Vital Background
Twitter has denied all of Zatko’s accusations, and Agrawal known as the whistleblower criticism a “false narrative riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and introduced with out essential context” in a memo to staff Tuesday. Clarke and Thompson’s letter comes after a number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers known as for an investigation into the corporate, pointing to Zatko’s declare that Twitter knowingly fell brief on its 2011 settlement with the FTC on protections for person privateness and safety.
Tangent
A five-day trial for Twitter’s lawsuit towards world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk trying to implement Musk’s $44 billion buy of the corporate will happen in October. Zatko claims that Twitter intentionally undercounted spam accounts and false profiles on its platform. This declare was beforehand raised by Musk. The allegations towards him have been saved quiet by Musk, who was a billionaire. tweetedTuesday: A meme about whistleblowing and a photograph of it Washington Publish report about Twitter’s board’s data of “spam detection” efforts on the firm.
Shocking Fact
Twitter shares are down greater than 5% since Monday’s market shut.
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Tweet Whistleblower: That is What Former Safety Chief Peiter Zatko Claims (SME)
Lawmakers examine Twitter safety chief’s whistleblower allegations (Washington Publish)