FTC questions Twitter on its consent decree
The US Federal Trade Commission has sent letters to Twitter asking if the company is able to comply with a consent decree that the agency has vowed to rigorously enforce, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
Elon Musk’s chaotic $44 billion purchase of Twitter and the subsequent exodus of staff — including many of the company’s lawyers — has raised concerns that it doesn’t have the security or legal resources to meet the requirements of its agreement with the FTC regarding user privacy and data security.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FTC’s 2011 consent decree stemmed from allegations that Twitter failed to protect user data in a 2009 hack that allowed intruders to send out fake messages from any user account, including celebrities and politicians.
Twitter in May paid a $150 million penalty for violating the order by misusing e-mail addresses provided for security purposes. The agency said Twitter used the e-mails for targeted advertising from 2013 to 2019.
The FTC last month said it was tracking recent developments at the company and said that the revised
consent decree gives the agency tools to enforce the order, emphasizing that no chief executive is above the law.
The FTC has been scrutinizing Twitter’s privacy and data-security compliance for more than a decade, requiring it to submit to independent audits every other year.
The New York Times reported earlier on the FTC’s letters to Twitter.
Meanwhile, Twitter employees terminated in Musk’s mass layoffs must be told about a lawsuit on their behalf against the company before they’re asked to give up their legal rights to qualify for severance pay, a judge ruled.
Twitter wants employees who accept a severance package that includes a month of base pay to sign a waiver agreeing not to join lawsuits against the company. The agreement doesn’t mention the existence of a class-action suit filed just before hundreds of people were fired in early November following Elon Musk’s takeover.
A company’s communications with workers about severance packages “should not be rendered misleading by omitting material information about a pending lawsuit,” US District Judge James Donato said in Wednesday’s order, adding that proper notice will “promote the fair and efficient administration” of the litigation.
Filed by a handful of workers, the suit alleges Twitter failed to give the required 60 to 90 days notice about the mass layoffs and is shortchanging the former employees on severance pay. Twitter faces separate claims that it retaliated against an employee who tried to organize a strike and that its layoffs disproportionately targeted female workers.
“Today’s decision is a victory for Twitter employees who for weeks have been abused by Elon Musk,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for the workers, said in an emailed statement. “The court’s ruling that Twitter must notify employees of our legal action is a basic but important step that will provide employees with the opportunity to more fully understand their rights instead of just signing them away, and potentially signing away money they are owed, under pressure from Musk.”
Liss-Riordan previously tangled
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the subsequent exodus of staff has raised concerns that it doesn’t have the resources to meet the requirements of its agreement with the FTC regarding user privacy and data security.
with Musk over layoffs at Tesla, his electric-car company. She argues in the Twitter suit that former workers are entitled to at least two months’ base pay, and maybe more depending on the number of years they worked there.
Under the previous agreement they’re also supposed to get three months of equity vesting, health-care contributions, and bonuses, she said.
As Tesla contended in the lawsuit over its layoffs, Twitter argued its former employees are bound by contractual agreements requiring them to resolve any disputes with the company in closed-door arbitration rather than in open court. A hearing on Twiiter’s request to force the workers into arbitration is set for January. In the Tesla case, a judge in Texas ordered the workers to go through arbitration.