Twitter on Friday blocked inquiries from Parliament’s Standing Committee on Information Technology about the company’s data security practices, The Indian Express has learned. In his testimony before the panel, Twitter is said to have been questioned about his former executive’s allegations. It reportedly said it had no information about hiring government agents.
The company is said to have been questioned by the panel, led by Congressman Shashi Tharoor, about the number of its employees with direct access to user data and whether it had employed staff previously linked to the Indian government. The panel had loaded Twitter into a hearing on “data security and citizen privacy” after Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the company’s former head of security who is said to have been personally hired by former CEO Jack Dorsey, claimed the government forced the social -Media companies to hire one or more individuals who were government officials and had unattended access to large amounts of the platform’s user data.
Twitter, represented by its senior India policy officials Samiran Gupta and Shagufta Kamran, is said to have sought additional time to respond to questions from the panel.
At the end of the hearing, the committee learns that it has given the company one week to submit written submissions.
In a whistleblower complaint filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, Zatko accused Twitter of failing to tell users that “the executive team believed the Indian government had managed to put agents on the payroll.” of the company”. He also claimed that the company “knowingly” allowed an “Indian government agent direct, unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data.”
In February last year, the Department of Electronics and IT (MeitY) announced the Information Technology Rules, 2021. These rules required social media companies to hire key personnel – node officers – who work exclusively with law enforcement to assist them with investigations. The companies also had to hire a compliance officer who would ensure compliance with the rules and a complaints officer who would handle complaints from users. It’s unclear if there’s a link between Zatko’s claims about Twitter hiring a “government agent” and the employees the company was required to hire under the 2021 IT Rules. Zatko said evidence to support this claim was shared with US intelligence.
The allegations come as Twitter is embroiled in two high-profile lawsuits — one with the center over some of its content-blocking orders, and another with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the US over his desire to get out of his $44 billion deal. Withdraw offer to buy the social media company.
Last month, the company asked the Karnataka High Court to overturn 39 links that MeitY had marked as blocked, claiming that the blocking orders fell outside the scope of the law.
Twitter also sued Musk for wanting to end his deal to buy the platform. Specifically, Musk has alleged in that lawsuit that the company’s decision to challenge MeitY’s lockdown orders was a “deviation from normal course” and “threatened” its business in India. In response, Twitter has said that its actions in India are consistent with its “global practice” of challenging government requests or laws when it believes such requests are “not appropriately captured, procedurally deficient, or required under local law.” “. Defending the rights of its users, including freedom of expression”.
