The FTC was subpoenaed by congressional Republicans simply for asking the social media platform Twitter too many questions. The FTC in its own defense is currently investigating whether the social media platform can continue to protect the data of users.
FTC Subpoenaed By Congressional Republicans
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday for documents that are related to its ongoing privacy investigation into Elon Musk-owned Twitter, as initially reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chair of the committee, reportedly authorized the subpoena that was sent to Lina Khan, FTC Chair thus accusing the agency of refusing to follow up with a handful of other requests that the committee has made over the last couple of months. The demand in question requires the FTC to hand over all internal communications that are related to Musk’s October 2022 acquisition of Twitter.
Jordan in his letter to Khan on Wednesday accused the FTC of making “inappropriate and burdensome demands” of Musk’s Twitter, calling the responses of the agency to past requests for information “woefully insufficient.”
The FTC Said It Is Monitoring Twitters Ability to Protect User Data
The FTC just shortly after Musk purchased Twitter in the previous year, said that it was monitoring the abilities of the platform to protect the security of users’ information. And in a recent report, Jordan’s committee found out that the FTC had sent out at least a dozen demand letters to the company ever since Musk took over the company.
“The FTC respects the important role of Congressional oversight. We have made multiple offers to brief Chairman Jordan’s staff on our investigation into Twitter. Those are standing offers made prior to this entirely unnecessary subpoena,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar in a statement to The Verge on Wednesday stated.
The Base of FTC’s Investigation
The investigation of the FTC is reportedly centered on the abilities of the platform to uphold data security promises that it made to the agency over 10 years ago. And in 2011, Twitter reached an agreement with the FTC in a bid to settle charges that the company had mishandled user data, thus ultimately letting hackers unauthorized access to user accounts. Twitter as part of that agreement, was required to create “a comprehensive privacy and information security program” to protect users on the platform.
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