FTC watching Twitter security exec exits with ‘deep concern’

Nov 10 (Reuters) – The US Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday it was looking at Twitter with “deep concern” after the social media platform’s top privacy and compliance executives stepped down, potentially putting it at risk of violating regulatory orders. was putting in.

The company’s chief security officer, Lee Kissner, said in a tweet on Thursday that he had stepped down. Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned, according to an internal message seen by Reuters.

The departure comes after the swift departure of the platform’s new owner, billionaire Elon Musk. clean house Later taking over Twitter for $44 billion on October 27th. He announced plans cut in half Its employees last week promised to stop fake accounts and Twitter is charging $8 per month for the Blue service that will include BlueCheck verification.

“We are tracking recent events on Twitter with deep concern,” Douglas Farrar, the FTC’s director of public affairs, told Reuters.

Farrar said, “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must abide by our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we have to use them.” are ready.”

in May, twitter agree It misused personal information, such as phone numbers, to target ads to users after the FTC paid $150 million to settle charges that the information was collected only for security reasons.

An attorney for Twitter’s privacy team reported the executive departure in a note seen by Reuters and posted on Twitter’s Slack messaging system on Thursday.

In the note, the attorney noted hearing Twitter’s legal chief Alex Spiro say that Musk was prepared to take “an enormous amount of risk” with Twitter. “Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC,” the lawyer quoted Spiro as saying.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on the FTC warning, attorney’s note or departure. Spiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since taking over, Musk has fired former chief executive Parag Agarwal and other top management, and the company’s advertising and marketing heads were soon released, adding to concerns that Twitter may have more to monitor. There are not enough people that it complies with the rules.

The acquisition has also raised concerns that Musk, who often gets into political debates, could face pressure from countries trying to control online speech.

It Inspired US President Joey Biden to say On Wednesday, Musk’s “cooperation and/or technical ties with other countries deserve attention.”

Advertisers weren’t convinced

Musk, speaking on Twitter’s Spaces feature on Wednesday, told advertisers that his goal is to turn the platform into a force for truth and stop fake accounts, which the company hopes to assuage advertisers upset by the change.

Their assurance may not be enough.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (cmg.n) said Thursday that it has withdrawn its paid and owned content on Twitter “while we gain a better understanding on the direction of the platform under our new leadership.”

It joined other brands including General Motors. (gm.n) that is ad paused On Twitter, since Musk took office, there have been concerns that he will loosen content moderation rules.

According to Bloomberg News, Musk sent his first email to Twitter employees on Thursday, saying remote work would not be allowed and he would be expected to be in the office at least 40 hours per week.

In the email, Musk said he would like to see subscriptions account for half of Twitter’s revenue.

Musk tweeted on Thursday: “Too many corrupt Legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so there is no choice but to remove Legacy Blue in the coming months.”

The attorney’s note confirming the executive departure was first reported by tech news site The Verge.

Reporting by Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California and Paresh Dave in Oakland, Calif.; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dustin in Palo Alto, Diane Bartz in Washington and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Written by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Arun Koyur, Shaunak Dasgupta, Bill Berkrot and Deepa Babington

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principals.