Twitter let Chinese and Indian agents work in the company

The testimony of Mr. Zatko, who was once a well-known hacker and head of Twitter ‘s security unit, drew attention in the context that Twitter has not yet settled the lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk.

” I’m here today because Twitter leadership is misleading the people, legislators, regulators and even the board of Twitter. ” Zatko explained at a hearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on September 13.

After being fired earlier this year, Zatko filed a complaint with the US Congress, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission in July. In it, he accused Twitter management of making false statements about privacy and user data protection measures.

Among Zatko’s testimony on September 13, lawmakers drew particular attention to what The Associated Press described as Twitter’s “clear negligence” in dealing with foreign agents. outside.

Accordingly, about a week before being fired, Mr. Zatko learned that an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security had joined Twitter and was even put on “the payroll”.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned Twitter about this character, but according to Mr. Zatko, the management seems to have ignored it. In addition to China, India is also said to have an agent at Twitter.

Zatko said he was shocked when he brought the matter to a Twitter executive. The CEO replied that since there is already a foreign agent on Twitter, it doesn’t matter how many more.

Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, described Mr. Zatko’s revelations as very disturbing, affecting hundreds of millions of users and even US democracy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the committee, called on both Democrats and Republicans to pass a law tightening controls on social media platforms.

In a statement after the hearing, Twitter said the company’s hiring process is independent and is not subject to foreign influence.

The social network also insists that access to data must go through a series of steps, including background checks, access control and systems to monitor who has this permission.

Regarding Mr. Zatko’s revelations, Twitter called them “false”, contradictory and inaccurate information.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal declined to testify because he said it was not beneficial to the lawsuit between this social network and billionaire Elon Musk. He announced that he spent more than $ 44 billion to buy Twitter, but then “canceled” because he thought there were too many virtual accounts on this social network.

It is not clear if the agents Zatko mentioned are still working at Twitter. India and China were not immediately available for comment.