Elon Musk is seeking to end an arrangement between Twitter and the Federal Trade Commission that was first agreed to in 2011.
The arrangement, which came at the conclusion of an FTC investigation into multiple breaches of Twitter's data security, prohibited the platform from misleading its users "about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information." As a part of the arrangement, Twitter was required to maintain an information security program, which was to be audited every other year for a decade.
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The FTC -- which found that Twitter had been secretly using its users' information for advertising purposes -- fined Twitter $150 million last May, just months before Musk went on to purchase the platform, in part for violating the arrangement between the two organizations.
X. Corp., Twitter's corporate alter-ego, filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Thursday seeking to end this arrangement.
The motion asks the court to “rein in an investigation that has spiraled out of control and become tainted by bias," and seeks to kill both the consent order and the $150 million fine that Twitter at the time agreed to pay.
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X Corp. said in the filing that the FTC has issued 16 information requests in the months since Musk took over, compared to the 28 letters sent in the prior decade.
“X Corp. has responded to this avalanche of demands as best it can, responding promptly to FTC inquiries and producing more than 22,000 documents to date,” the motion reads. “The FTC’s overreach has now culminated in a demand to depose Mr. Musk, who is not, and never has been, a party to the consent order.”
The FTC declined to provide comment on the motion.
"FTC overreach has gone absurdly far beyond the legal mandate granted by Congress," Musk tweeted. "Weaponization of government agencies for censorship & political machinations needs to stop."
FTC overreach has gone absurdly far beyond the legal mandate granted by Congress.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2023
Weaponization of government agencies for censorship & political machinations needs to stop.
FTC Chair Lina Khan testified before the House Judiciary Committee on July 13 about the agency's work. Khan has been paying close attention to Twitter since Musk's takeover.
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” an FTC spokesperson told The Hill in November. “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”
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