Twitter moves to end FTC oversight of data security practice

Twitter has filed a motion seeking to end the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) oversight of its data security practices that has been in place for years. 

X Corp., which is Twitter’s corporate name, filed the motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to end the arrangement that has been in place since Twitter agreed to a consent order in 2011 after the FTC found the platform had “serious lapses” in its data security. 

Twitter was fined $150 million by the FTC last May, a few months before Elon Musk took over the company, for violating the consent order governing its privacy practices. The agency found that Twitter used its users’ personal information for advertising between May 2013 and September 2019. 

The filing requests that the court “rein in an investigation that has spiraled out of control and become tainted by bias” and terminate the updated consent order that Twitter agreed to along with the fine that required the platform to establish an enhanced privacy program and improved information security. 

X Corp. argued that the consent order no longer serves “any proper equitable purpose.” It said the FTC has issued 16 demand letters to the company since Musk took over, compared to 28 letters that were sent in the decade before, and wants to depose Musk. 

Documents described in a congressional report revealed in March that the FTC is investigating Musk’s widespread layoffs at Twitter and seeking to obtain his internal communications as part of the ongoing oversight. 

The X Corp. filing is also requesting a stay to prevent Musk from being deposed. 

“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 filing states. “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 increased its attention on Twitter after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company. It said in November that it was concerned with how Musk was handling Twitter and was tracking related “developments.” 

The Hill has reached out to the FTC for comment. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.