Whistleblower Claims Twitter Misled US Regulators
Twitter’s former security chief Peiter Zatko has alleged in a whistleblower complaint that the social media company misled federal regulators about its defences against spam accounts and hackers.
In an 84-page complaint, Zatko alleged that Twitter falsely claimed it had a solid security plan, according to documents relayed by congressional investigators.
The document claims the social media platform prioritised user-growth over reducing spam. Executives were supposedly eligible to earn individual bonuses up to $10 million tied to increases in daily users, yet nothing explicitly for reducing spam.
Twitter has called the complaint a “false narrative.”
The social media giant has recently become involved in a legal battle with Tesla CEO Elon Musk after he attempted to walk away from a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk claims the social media platform failed to provide details about the prevalence of spam accounts and bots.
