US Congressman Investigating Peiter Zatko's Report On Twitter Lies

Republican Senator Frank Pallone, Chair of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee. (photo: twitter @FrankPallone)

JAKARTA - The US Congress is investigating new whistleblower claims made by Twitter's former chief of security following two shocking reports published on Tuesday, August 23 - and several are calling on top federal law enforcement officials to follow their lead.

The Washington Post and CNN published two reports on alarming new safety and security allegations brought against Twitter by Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, who was fired as the company's chief security officer earlier this year.

Zatko alleged that Twitter made little effort to combat spam accounts and had surprisingly inadequate cybersecurity defenses.

In response to the new report, several top lawmakers said their committee and staff were currently investigating Zatko's allegations. Senator Richard Durbin, chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, confirmed he was investigating the disclosures from Zatko and would "take further steps as necessary to resolve these alarming allegations," he tweeted in a tweet on Tuesday.

Republican Senator Frank Pallone, chairman of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, also agreed with Durbin's statement. He wrote that he was "carefully reviewing" the whistleblower's allegations and "assessing next steps" in a tweet last Tuesday.

Democratic technologists like Sens. Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal also sent letters to law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday asking them to open their own investigations into Zatko's claims.

Markey wrote to FTC chairman Lina Khan and Attorney General Merrick Garland, which raises questions about whether Twitter is once again raging over its 2011 agreement decision with the FTC over previous breaches of privacy and security.

"Not surprisingly, then, Twitter continues to experience embarrassing security incidents and faces ongoing scrutiny for misleading users and regulators," Markey wrote in his letter Tuesday. “This delightful disregard for user data and the FTC settlement cannot last.”

In May, Twitter agreed to pay $150 million to settle a lawsuit with the Justice Department and the FTC. The agency accused Twitter of fraudulently using account emails and phone numbers for targeted advertising.

The lawsuit claims that, by doing so, the platform violated a 2011 FTC order in which agency officials "suspect that serious irregularities in the security of corporate data allowed hackers to gain unauthorized administrative control of Twitter."

An FTC order prohibits Twitter from misleading users over the privacy and security of their data for 20 years. In his whistleblower disclosure, Zatko accused Twitter of violating the terms of the 2011 agreement. Federal law enforcement investigations could take years to complete, even longer if officials choose to file charges or sue Twitter over Zatko's allegations.

However, the letters show that at least some in Congress saw the claim as too important to ignore. In his letter to Khan on Tuesday, Blumenthal said, “These disturbing disclosures paint a picture of a company that has consistently and repeatedly prioritized profit over the safety of its users and its responsibilities to the public, as Twitter executives appear to have ignored or hindered efforts to address threats to user security and privacy."