The US Federal Commerce Fee has requested Twitter to show over inside communications associated to Elon Musk, together with details about latest layoffs, with a give attention to how the workers reductions on the social media firm may have an effect on its potential to guard customers, The Wall Avenue Journal reported Tuesday.
The FTC has additionally requested Twitter to “determine all journalists” given entry to firm information and to supply details about the launch of the overhauled Twitter Blue subscription service, in response to paperwork considered by the Journal. Since Musk took over the corporate in October, the company has despatched a dozen letters to Twitter and its legal professionals, the Journal reported.
“We’re involved these workers reductions impression Twitter’s potential to guard shoppers’ info,” an FTC official wrote to Twitter’s legal professionals on Nov. 10 after the primary spherical of layoffs earlier that month, in response to the Journal.
The fee additionally requested whether or not privateness opinions had been performed earlier than implementing product modifications, as required underneath a Might 2022 consent order wherein Twitter agreed to pay $150 million for misrepresenting how it might use nonpublic consumer contact info.
The FTC can be searching for to have Musk testify in reference to the probe, the Journal reported.
The FTC did not instantly reply to a request for remark. A spokesperson for the fee advised the Journal that the company is “conducting a rigorous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent order that got here into impact lengthy earlier than Mr. Musk bought the firm.”
Twitter, which not has a communications division, did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
Musk, who bought Twitter in October for $44 billion, minimize roughly 50% of its workforce, or about 3,700 employees, within the first month — layoffs that spurred lawsuits alleging employees’ rights violations. Extra executives and employees give up, with so many defecting that Twitter customers feared the positioning would crash.
As Musk minimize prices and jobs, he additionally made fast modifications to the service, comparable to rolling out a brand new system for verifying accounts and reinstating banned accounts like that of former US President Donald Trump, who Twitter had booted from the platform for violating the positioning’s guidelines towards glorifying violence.
Musk’s transfer to cost for options which can be usually free has irked individuals who use the platform, particularly as a result of the modifications have been made with little discover. Twitter fumbled the rollout of an up to date verification system final 12 months that allowed customers to get a coveted blue test mark in the event that they pay a subscription price.
