Congress and US regulators deal with Elon Musk’s activities on Twitter

US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) holds a large-scale investigation into the actions of Elon Musk on Twitter. Regulators want to see if the new owner’s major transformation has harmed Twitter’s mechanisms to protect user data, especially after massive layoffs and budget cuts. To do this, the regulators requested internal correspondence between key divisions of the Internet platform and Elon Musk. In addition, the regulators want to have a conversation with the entrepreneur himself, as well as with a number of company employees dismissed by him.

Congressmen also want to understand the situation around Elon Musk and Twitter. Last night, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued reportin which he criticized the actions of the FTC itself in relation to Elon Musk and Twitter.

The Republican-majority committee believes that the FTC’s excessive activity turns state power into a “weapon directed against American citizens” and basic civil liberties: “Freedom of speech is one of the most important rights guaranteed to every American. Buying Twitter Elon Musk last year was called upon to breathe new life into ensuring the fundamental rights of citizens in the digital age. Now the FTC is pursuing an aggressive campaign against Twitter and is demanding documents on the activities of each department, all internal correspondence regarding Elon Musk, and even documents relating to Twitter’s communication with journalists. All of these claims are baseless, at odds with the FTC’s mission, and are an attempt to pressure Twitter to silence Musk.”

Republicans and Donald Trump have repeatedly criticized former Twitter leadership for censoring the site. Criticism intensified after Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s account after his supporters stormed the Capitol in early 2021. The then management of the social network believed that the tweets of the 45th President of the United States could encourage people to participate in the riots. Elon Musk unlocked account of the former head of state in November, after arranging a vote of social network users before that. 51.8% of users were in favor of the return of Mr. Trump, 48.2% were against.

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Evgeniy Khvostik