Twitter seeks end to US oversight of data use as FTC’s Lina Kahn goes before House committee

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN
AP Business Writer

Twitter wants a federal court to end an order imposed by the Federal Trade Commission that limits its data security practices.

The FTC has been watching the company for years since Twitter agreed to a 2011 consent order alleging serious data security lapses. But the agency’s concerns spiked with the tumult that followed Elon Musk’s Oct. 27 takeover of the company.

In March it was disclosed that the FTC was investigating Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company’s privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report.

Twitter paid a $150 million penalty in May 2022, about five months before Musk’s takeover, for violating the 2011 consent order. An updated version established new procedures requiring the company to implement an enhanced privacy-protection program as well as beefing up information security.

X Corp., now Twitter’s corporate name, has filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, for a protective order and relief from the consent order.

In the filing, Twitter asks the court to “rein in an investigation that has spiraled out of control and become tainted by bias, and to terminate a misfit consent order that no longer can serve any proper equitable purpose.”

The filing states that the FTC has issued 16 demand letters to X Corp. since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, in comparison to approximately 28 demand letters it issued in the decade-plus period it oversaw Twitter’s compliance with the prior consent order.

The order seeks a stay that would prevent the FTC from deposing Musk.

“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.”

A hearing date is listed for Aug. 17, but the filing states that a hearing may occur on such other date and time as the court may order.