Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the committee, authorized the subpoena sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan, accusing the agency of refusing to comply with a handful of other requests the committee has made in recent years. months. The lawsuit requires the FTC to turn over all internal communications related to Musk’s October 2022 purchase of Twitter.
In his letter to Khan on Wednesday, Jordan accused the FTC of making “inappropriate and burdensome demands” on Musk’s Twitter, calling the agency’s responses to previous information requests “woefully insufficient.”
Shortly after Musk bought Twitter last year, the FTC said it was monitoring the platform’s capabilities to protect the security of user information. In a recent report, Jordan’s committee found that the FTC had sent at least a dozen demand letters to the company since Musk took over.
“The FTC respects the important role of congressional oversight. We made several offers to inform President Jordan’s staff about our investigation on Twitter. Those are standing offers made prior to this completely unnecessary subpoena,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said in a statement to the edge Wednesday.
The FTC’s investigation reportedly focuses on the platform’s abilities to deliver on data security promises it made to the agency more than 10 years ago. In 2011, Twitter settled with the FTC to settle charges that the company had mishandled user data, ultimately allowing hackers unauthorized access to user accounts. As part of that agreement, Twitter was required to create “a comprehensive privacy and information security program” to protect users.
