Senate Democrats call for probe into Twitter under Musk

WASHINGTON

US Senate Democrats called Thursday for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Twitter over "any breach of Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws."

In a letter, the senators, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, said the company's CEO, Elon Musk, has recently taken "alarming steps," which they said have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform.

In addition, they raised concerns about new features by the company, saying changes introduced "would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation."

"We are concerned that the actions taken by Mr. Musk and others in Twitter management could already represent a violation of the FTC’s consent decree, which prohibits misrepresentation and requires that Twitter maintain a comprehensive information security program," said the letter.

"We fear that Mr. Musk’s reported changes to internal reviews and data security practices further put consumers at risk and could directly violate the requirements of the consent decree," it added.

The senators also urged the commission to "oversee its consent decree with Twitter and to bring enforcement actions against any breaches or business practices that are unfair or deceptive, including bringing civil penalties and imposing liability on individual Twitter executives where appropriate.”

Shortly after his purchase of Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Musk removed CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde from their offices.

He also declared himself the sole owner and fired almost half of the company's staff.