Twitter is again in trouble with US regulators over privacy concerns. The social media company was fined $150 million for violating user privacy.
According to court documents, Twitter admitted to collecting phone numbers and email addresses of users to target ads to them. But to users, Twitter said the information would be used to secure their accounts.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Twitter violated an agreement made in 2011, under which Twitter said it would not use account information collected for security purposes as a tool to target ads.
"Twitter obtains data from users under the pretext of using it for security purposes but then also uses that data to target users with advertisements," said FTC Chairman Lina Khan, as quoted by Mashable, Friday (27/5/2022).
This practice lasted from at least May 2013 to September 2019 and affected more than 140 million Twitter users. Previously, Twitter had also publicly apologized for this practice in 2019.
Even so, for Elon Musk who will soon become the new owner of Twitter, this is worrying news. Musk, who offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, also commented on this fine.
"If Twitter isn't being honest here, what else isn't true? This is very worrying news," Musk said in a tweet.
If Twitter was not truthful here, what else is not true? This is very concerning news.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2022
He also emphasized that one of his visions after becoming the owner of Twitter was to introduce a paid system with a subscription fee so as not to rely on advertising as his main source of income.
Musk made his bid to buy Twitter last April. Some of his visions to improve Twitter include eradicating fake accounts and bots, increasing the number of new users, and the company's revenue.
Last week Musk said the Twitter acquisition process was temporarily suspended because he was unconvinced by Twitter's report that the number of bot accounts on his platform was less than 5%. But the richest man in the world admits that he is still committed to continuing the acquisition.