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Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Twitter and the electric car maker, gives a look at this as he speaks during his visit to the Vivatech technology fair for startups and innovation at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on June 16, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD/AFP) (Photo by Alain JOCARD/AFP) ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
Alain Joquard | Afp | Getty Images
Twitter asked a federal court on Thursday to terminate or amend a Federal Trade Commission order governing how the company stores and uses information about Twitter users.
The 2011 agreement originally resolved charges that the platform had failed to adequately protect its users’ information. The order subjected Twitter to an independent evaluation of its security program for 10 years, and to bar the company from misleading consumers about its security and privacy practices for 20 years.
Twitter is asking the court to determine whether the 2011 FTC request “fair given the FTC’s conduct,” according to the filing. The company said the investigation “has spiraled out of control and has become tainted with bias.” As a result, the “inconvenient consent order… no longer serves any proper just purpose”.
Twitter claims the FTC has issued “ongoing claims” to “protect onerous documents,” particularly since Elon Musk took over the company last year. Since that time, X Corp. Inc., which owns Twitter, said it had received 16 request letters, compared to only about 28 letters from the agency in the past decade or more.
“The FTC’s transgressions have now culminated in a demand for the removal of Mr. Musk, who was not and never was a party to the consent order,” the lawsuit states.
In May 2022, before Musk took over, the company reached a $150 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice alleging it violated a 2011 order by failing to adequately inform users of how their contact information was used to target ads.
Shortly after Musk took over Twitter, the FTC made it clear that it was committed to upholding its orders after the privacy and security executives left the company.
“We are following the latest developments on Twitter with deep concern,” a spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission said in a statement in November. “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our approval decisions. Our revised approval order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are ready to use them.”
As an alternative to terminating or modifying the agreement, Twitter said it would ask the court to direct the FTC to provide evidence to X Corp. and pause enforcement of the agreement until it is produced.
The Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.
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