Privacy

Twitter Fined $150M on Accusation of Deceptive Practices

MAY 26 2022·Updated DEC 29 2022

Story

Image credit: Getty Images [via Wall Street Journal]

The Facts

The US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Wed. that Twitter will pay $150M and put in new safeguards after federal regulators alleged the platform failed to protect users' data for 6 years.
Independent
Federal prosecutors alleged the company collected phone numbers and emails - used for account security measures - and then fed them into advertising tools without disclosing such practices.
wsj
The FTC's complaint alleged that Twitter violated a 2011 order barring the company from misleading the public about how it uses consumer information.
CNN
The FTC order also requires the company to notify the more than 140M affected users, alert the FTC of future data breaches, and conduct bi-annual security audits for the next two decades.
wsj
The settlement must first be approved by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, where it was filed by the DOJ on behalf of the FTC.
CNN
This comes amidst the news that Elon Musk has pledged an additional $6.25B in equity financing to his $44B bid to take over Twitter.
ITN

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The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

This is another example that, with Big Tech, not only is your data taken from you, it's ultimately used to influence your behavior. Ad targeting practices can range from simply annoying to outright treacherous, such as when fake news and accounts impact otherwise free and fair elections. Citizens suffer the ramifications while these tech giants profit, and there should be better regulation.

World Economic Forum

Pro-establishment narrative

Unfortunately, regulation squeezes small businesses in the tech sector. Conforming to government rules helps only to entrench dominant companies. For smaller firms, compliance is costly to administer, and innovation and healthy competition is-all-to-often reduced.