SAN FRANCISCO: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has fined Twitter $ 150 million for violating privacy. The company has admitted to fraudulently using users’ phone numbers and email addresses for advertising purposes. The commission also found that the crime, which has been rampant since May 2013, has affected more than 140 million users. In 2019, Twitter issued an apology note on a similar issue.
Elon Musk also responded to the incident. Musk tweeted that it was a matter of concern and that if Twitter was not honest about its customers, what else would it be honest about? Musk froze the $ 44 billion acquisition deal, alleging that the number of fake accounts was higher than the company had released.
Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey have resigned from the board of directors. Dorsey’s board resigns amid an ongoing dispute with Elon Musk over fake spam accounts. Dorsey announced in November 2021 that he would be leaving the company soon after resigning as CEO of Twitter. Following this, Indian-born Parag Agarwal took over as CEO of Twitter. Dorsey is currently the Chairman and CEO of Block, a financial payment platform.
