In a letter addressed to CEO Parag Agrawal, leading members of the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Twitter about the steps the company takes to secure personal data on its platform; how it protects against insider threats and foreign intelligence operatives; and allegations it’s intentionally misled regulators about Twitter’s privacy protections for users, claims that could lead to billions of dollars in fines for Twitter if they are proven.
The letter requests responses from Twitter by Sept. 26.
“If accurate, Mr. Zatko’s allegations demonstrate an unacceptable disregard for data security that threatens national security and the privacy of Twitter’s users,” wrote Sens. Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley, the panel’s top Democrat and Republican, in the letter.
Twitter has pushed back on Zatko’s allegations, accusing him of painting a “false narrative” of the company. It has said that while members of its product and engineering teams have the type of access Zatko describes, only those with a specific business justification are permitted to access the live Twitter product. It has also said that Twitter has internal processes to deactivate and to begin deleting the data of users who cancel their accounts, but the company has not said whether it typically completes that process. And the company has not publicly addressed Zatko’s allegations about possible foreign intelligence compromise.
