Elon Musk’s apparent need to stir up conspiracies and provide outsiders access to Twitter’s systems and data could land him in trouble with watchdogs in the EU and US.
Elon Musk recently granted journalists access to Twitter’s data and systems, which led to the publication of articles alleging Twitter’s content moderation was biased prior to Musk’s acquisition of the platform. Dubbed the ‘Twitter Files’, the so-called expose has not been newsworthy like Musk had hoped, as it only showed Twitter doing its job.
Making the news
Twitter has a lot of user-generated content, which is why the organization employs staff to discuss how policies are implemented, how information is presented as facts and how harmful content should be moderated.
Although the Twitter Files data dumps were heavily publicized, they have yet to tell the story Musk wanted to tell. The CEO could end up making the news over his decision to open up systems to external reporters in an unlawful manner.
Consent decree
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which is Twitter’s lead data protection regulator in the EU, has contacted the organization to request more details about outsider access to internal data. Bloomberg reported that the EU as a whole is concerned about reporters gaining access to Twitter user information.
Media quoted tweets by Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former CISO, who said that a Twitter thread posted by one of the reporters that gained access should be enough to launch an investigation of the “consent decree”.
The consent decree dates back to 2011 and came about after allegations that Twitter violated the security and privacy of user data for years. Back in May, the social media platform received a $150 million fine for breaching the order. If Twitter is found guilty again, the punishment could be much more severe.
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