Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, filed a whistleblower complaint with the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice accusing the tech giant of “egregious deficiencies,” including its decision to “knowingly” allow keeping an agent of the Indian government on its payroll and granting them access to sensitive data during “intense protests” in the country.
The complaint highlighted that in countries where Twitter and its employees have a physical presence, “the threat of harm to Twitter employees was sufficient to cause Twitter to seriously consider complying with foreign government requests that Twitter would otherwise fundamentally oppose.”
In this regard, he accused India, along with Russia and Nigeria, of intimidating Twitter to hire local employees. Supporting evidence for the claim has been presented to the National Security Division of the Justice Department and the Senate Select Committee of Intelligence.
Twitter executives deceived federal regulators, the public, and its board of directors about “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in protecting its users and systems from hackers and reducing spam, according to a whistleblower complaint obtained by The Post. https://t.co/Tg86F3cOQO
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 23, 2022
Zatko is a popular hacker who in fact hacked several verified accounts on the platform, including former US President Barack Obama and businessman Elon Musk in 2020. He was subsequently asked to join Twitter by founder and erstwhile chief executive officer Jack Dorsey to help improve security on the platform.
Responding to The Print, a Twitter spokesperson rejected concerns about Twitter’s privacy and data security practices and accused Zatko of being an “opportunist” who is seeking to “capture attention.” They also said Zatko was fired in January 2022 over his “ineffective leadership and poor performance.
A senior official said that Zatko’s allegations were “deeply embedded in malice” and exposed the “sinister agenda of key personnel in Big Tech companies.”
BREAKING:
— Munsif Vengattil (@MunsifV) July 5, 2022
Twitter is suing the Indian government. It is seeking to quash some content removal orders issued to the social media firm, alleging abuse of power by the government.
Twitter is attempting to get a judicial review of some of these takedown orders. Developing story... pic.twitter.com/v7kry7iJwA
The whistleblower complaint marks the latest development in the ongoing tiff between Twitter and the Indian government.
In a transparency report published last month, Twitter said that India topped the list of countries with government-led demands to take down content by verified journalists and accounts from July to December 2021.
In fact, during that same month, Twitter submitted a petition before the Karnataka High Court to reverse the government’s decision to restrict access to 39 links.
Meta-run Whatsapp, too, approached the Delhi High Court in July and warned that ending encryption would violate the right to privacy of Indian citizens enshrined in the constitution and in previous judgements.
India was the single largest source of govt requests for account information received by Twitter (25% of the global volume) during the Jul-Dec 2020.India is ranked 2nd in terms of legal demands for content removal after Japan-Twitter’s transparency report.https://t.co/uFNvuS9Y0k
— anshuman tiwari (@anshuman1tiwari) July 15, 2021
Twitter has said the Indian government has issued “several” such takedown notices in recent years.
In February 2021, the government criticised Twitter for failing to comply with its orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, under which it ordered the social media giant to take down 1,100 accounts for publishing “inflammatory content” during the farmers’ protests.
Likewise, in April 2021, the Indian Information Technology Ministry called on all social media companies to take down content that referred to the B.1.617 strain of the COVID-19 virus as the “Indian Variant.”
Subsequently, in May, the government introduced a new law that stripped social media platforms with over five million users of their right to be protected from the legal consequences of failing to adhere to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
One month later, authorities filed their first criminal complaint against Twitter over its failure to remove “misleading” posts by journalists and opposition leaders related to an alleged assault on an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad.
Twitter has repeatedly maintained that its rules and regulations comply with the company’s “global practice” and are “properly scoped under local law, are procedurally deficient, or as necessary to defend its users’ rights, including freedom of expression.”
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, meanwhile, has defended the government’s stern actions, saying that “be it any company, in any sector, they should abide by the laws of India.”