Twitter Whistleblower To Meet Senate Panel on 13 Sept, EU Watchdogs Begin Probe

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A US Senate panel will hold a hearing with Twitter's former security chief-turned-whistleblower Peiter "Mudge" Zatko on 13 September over his allegations that the social media company misled regulators and violated security and privacy standards, Reuters reported.

At the same time, Twitter is reportedly facing investigations from European privacy watchdogs. Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) and France's CNIL are following up on the whistleblower complaint, according to TechCrunch.

Twitter Misled EU Regulators: Zatko

Among other things, Zatko's complaint alleged that Twitter misled or intended to mislead mentioned European regulators and regional oversight bodies over its compliance with local laws.

"If the accusations are true, the CNIL could carry out checks that could lead to an order to comply or a sanction if breaches are found. In the absence of a breach, the procedure would be terminated," said the French watchdog.

Zatko's complaint mentioned that in early 2022, "the Irish-DPC and French-CNIL were expected to ask similar questions, and a senior privacy employee told Mudge that Twitter was going to attempt the same deception."

"Unless circumstances have changed since Mudge was fired in January, then Twitter's continued operation of many of its basic products is most likely unlawful and could be subject to an injunction, which could take down most or all of the Twitter platform," it added.

Another one of Zatko's allegations refers to the involvement of foreign government agents, namely agents from the Indian government, in acquiring sensitive data through the platform.

Twitter, which has taken Elon Musk to court to force him to buy the company for $44 billion, has labeled Zatko's complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a "false narrative."

(With inputs from Reuters and TechCrunch.)