EU, US watchdogs concerned Twitter cuts will affect security • The Register

It seems that, whenever you purchase the web’s “city sq.” and fireplace most people who run it, governments on each side of the pond wish to have a chat with you about person security and safety.

That is what Elon Musk has been studying since shopping for Twitter final yr and shedding more than half the corporate’s employees – at last count it was all the way down to round 2,000 people from greater than 7,500 tweeps within the pre-Elon period. It wasn’t till this week, nevertheless, that we acquired an precise take a look at how and why EU and US officers are scrutinizing Twitter and its new proprietor.

Whereas the explanations the EU and the US Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) have been DMing with Musk differ barely, each come all the way down to the identical fundamental concern: Regulators do not appear assured that Twitter can fulfill its tasks to customers and the regulation with so few folks steering the ship.

The EU desires extra human moderators …

The Monetary Instances said it spoke with 4 folks acquainted with talks between EU regulators, Musk and Twitter executives, the latter pair of whom have been allegedly informed by Brussels to rent human moderators and fact-checkers to be able to adjust to the EU’s Digital Services Act.

Handed final yr, the DSA contains provisions that require platforms to not solely take away any speech which is unlawful offline, but in addition to keep up transparency round how content material is moderated. 

In keeping with the FT’s unnamed sources, Musk beforehand informed EU Commissioner Thierry Breton that Twitter would lean into AI moderation practices and the corporate’s “Neighborhood Notes” characteristic that permits trusted Twitter customers so as to add context to tweets. Breton’s response was reportedly that Twitter may reasonable itself nevertheless it needed, however that it had higher rent extra folks to take action. 

Certainly one of Twitter’s many personnel cuts have been to its PR workforce, and as such it has been almost inconceivable to succeed in anybody on the firm to get a press release. FT did handle to get a reply out of Twitter concerning its talks with the EU, although, by means of which a spokesperson mentioned the social media platform meant to completely adjust to the DSA. 

… and the FTC is simply plain fearful

We have recognized the FTC was scrutinizing Twitter since Musk took it over – in November Musk told Twitter workers that the corporate would do “no matter it takes” to adapt to the FTC’s 2011 consent decree that required it to inform the Fee any time it made product modifications.

That consent decree was reinforced in Might of final yr, previous to Musk closing his buy of Twitter, when the FTC fined Twitter $150 million for violating the settlement, which banned Twitter from utilizing buyer knowledge for focused commercials with out their consent.

What wasn’t clear previous to yesterday was the extent to which the FTC has been digging into Twitter since Musk’s takeover. 

In keeping with a report [PDF] from the US Home Committee on the Judiciary’s new Choose Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Authorities, greater than a dozen FTC letters have been despatched to Twitter since Musk’s acquisition. The report claims the FTC “has been making an attempt to harass Twitter and pry into the corporate’s choices on issues outdoors of the FTC’s mandate,” however the report solely contains temporary excerpts from the FTC’s requests to Twitter, leaving them devoid of context.

A few of the FTC’s requests to Twitter, based on the Subcommittee report, have been for the names of journalists who shared inside Twitter communications as a part of Musk’s “Twitter Files,” all inside communications associated to Elon Musk since he purchased the corporate, data on the departure of Twitter lawyer Jim Baker and extra knowledge concerning the Twitter Blue paid verification scheme.

“The Committee doesn’t dispute that defending person privateness and mitigating data safety dangers are essential duties … however the FTC is at the moment imposing some calls for on Twitter that don’t have any rational foundation in person privateness,” the Subcommittee mentioned in its report.

However with out the total FTC letters, it is inconceivable to glean the FTC’s justification for requesting that knowledge. We reached out to the Fee to ask some questions and take a look at the letters, however weren’t informed a lot.

“Defending customers’ privateness is precisely what the FTC is meant to do. It ought to come as no shock that profession employees on the fee are conducting a rigorous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent order that got here into impact lengthy earlier than Mr. Musk bought the corporate,” an FTC spokesperson mentioned in an emailed assertion.

In keeping with the WSJ’s studying of the letters, the FTC is anxious that Twitter is delaying its responses, elevating further issues about its compliance with the consent decree. The Fee can be looking for to depose Musk in reference to its investigation. 

“We’re involved these employees reductions influence Twitter’s capability to guard customers’ data,” the WSJ quoted from a November 10 FTC letter to Twitter. 

Of the request for names of journalists, the FTC informed Twitter on December 13 that it needed to know concerning the nature of entry granted to the people who revealed the Twitter Recordsdata to make certain it was “constant along with your privateness and knowledge safety obligations underneath the [consent decree].”

As for Baker’s departure, a part of his job revolved round guaranteeing compliance with the FTC consent decree, and he allegedly left as a result of a disagreement over dealing with of the Twitter Recordsdata and their publication. If that is true, it is comprehensible why the FTC could wish to know extra about his departure.

As for Twitter Blue, the FTC reportedly desires to know if Twitter is conducting in-depth privateness evaluations, as required by the consent decree, previous to updating the product. Lastly, given how concerned Musk has been in deciding the course of the corporate – bad decisions and all – it is comprehensible the FTC would wish to scrutinize any communication from, or about, Musk and his steering of Twitter.

You will not get that from the Subcommittee report, sadly, because it’s laborious to learn it as something however political. With quotes resembling “Elon Musk… has reshaped Twitter to revitalize freedom of speech on-line” subsequent to the reality of Twitter 2.0 and repeated cries within the report of how “the left” is the reason for Twitter shedding promoting {dollars} and dealing with regulatory scrutiny – not the actions of its CEO – it is laborious to take it very severely. ®