Twitter’s former security chief has handed over burning documents about his former employer to the Security and Exchange Commission.
The latter, Peiter Zatko, dismissed a few months ago, accused the blue bird network of lying to its shareholders on several key issues. The criticisms concern in particular the far too flexible access to users’ personal information granted to employees as well as the company’s lack of will to fight against bots.
Zatko’s accusations against Twitter
The documents submitted to the SEC identify many bad practices, but the most notable of them are surely the following:
- Management’s unwillingness to combat the proliferation of bots: Contrary to its public announcements, Twitter actually does very little to limit the number of bots present on its platform. Between the problems of disinformation that this implies, particularly visible at each election, and the inflated user figures that this allows to display, the microblogging site seems to have made its choice.
- Access to users’ personal information: Zatko explains that nearly half of the company’s 7,000 employees have access to all of its users’ personal data, most often without any control. The impossibility of monitoring the use that they make of it was also demonstrated recently, when a former employee was convicted in the United States for acts of espionage for the benefit of Saudi Arabia.
- The introduction of government agents into its organization chart: the whistleblower accuses the Indian government of forcing Twitter to integrate some of its agents into the company. The latter therefore have access to confidential information, in particular concerning political opponents.
The consequences of these revelations
A spokesperson for the American company responded to these accusations. For him, the former director of security is sensationalist and presents only part of the truth. He also accuses Zatko of getting revenge after he was fired for his poor performance (he claims it’s because of the criticism he got). Finally, the spokesperson points out that the whistleblower is coming out of the shadows precisely at a time when Twitter is in the spotlight after the soap opera of the possible takeover by Elon Musk. The latter is following all these revelations with attention.
Indeed, one of the main reasons given by the legal team of the CEO of Tesla for his abandonment of the takeover is the number, according to them very undervalued by Twitter, of bots present on the platform. If Musk’s lawyers manage to obtain proof, in particular thanks to Zatko, the businessman could recover part of the amount incurred.
In addition, other revelations, in particular on known security flaws that have not been corrected for years, could be worth heavy fines to the platform if they turn out to be true.
Sources: The Verge, BFM TV
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