SFLC.in has urged the Standing Committee on Information Technology, to investigate the impact of Twitter whistleblower Mudge’s revelations on Indian users and their rights. Twitter’s former security chief, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, recently alleged that the platform misled regulators, and violated security and privacy standards. He stated that Twitter’s cybersecurity and data security systems, which were subjected to a Federal Trade Commission investigation in 2011, suffer from gross inadequacy. The complaint states that Twitter employees have access to personal user data which they do not need for the purposes of their operations, and that Twitter mined the data for targeted advertisements and marketing campaigns. The complainant also refers to the weakness of the platform’s internal data systems, the insufficiency of which could trigger the collapse of the platform to a point from which its recovery was uncertain. Specifically naming India, the complaint alleges that the Indian Government required “Twitter to hire specific individuals alleged to be spies, who would have had significant access to sensitive data thanks to Twitter’s own lax security controls.”
Allegations of the weakness of Twitter’s infrastructure, such that it may lead to a collapse beyond the point of return, warrants immediate measures to be put in place to avoid this occurrence, in light of the damage it may cause to public discourse, and access. We have urged the Standing Committee to look into the matter in depth on an urgent basis.
A copy of the letter can be found below.
