EU, FTC push Musk's Twitter over staff cuts
AxiosMar 08, 2023
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has acknowledged an investigation into Elon Musk’s mass layoffs, and a wide-ranging investigation into the company's privacy practices, according to documents described in a report by a Congressional committee.
According to the report, the FTC has sent more than a dozen letters to Twitter and its lawyers since Musk took over the company in October. The letters requested more information about the privacy settings associated with the new Twitter Blue subscription and for the company to "identify all journalists" who were granted access to company records.
No matter how much Twitter needs to cut costs, it still needs to meet legal obligations. The FTC is conducting a thorough investigation to ensure that consumer privacy regulations are being met. It is of the utmost importance that consumer information is protected, no matter how unpopular the investigations may be.
There is no reason why the FTC would need to know the identities of journalists who engaged with Twitter records or internal communications about Elon Musk. All of Twitter's decisions do not need to be analyzed based on user privacy. This is an unreasonable overreach of a government organization and this kind of weaponization of government needs to be stopped.