Twitter Whistleblower Reveals No Other Choice: Congress Must Act to Protect Data Privacy
Commentary
Hacker and network security specialist Peiter “Mudge” Zatko testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about allegations in his whistleblower report last month.
The Senate hearing arose from intense concerns that Twitter executives have failed in their responsibility to protect user data. In his whistleblower report, Zatko detailed a systemic lack of institutional concern for users’ data privacy or platform security throughout his tenure as the social media company’s security chief.
Persisting throughout the Senate hearing was a bipartisan strand of disappointment, as if Twitter were a long-treasured American manufacturer just recently succumbed to poor leadership.
But Americans should examine whether there ever was a perch from which Twitter fell to cause this disappointment in the company’s utter lack of concern for any outcome besides profit….