A former security chief of Twitter alleged on Tuesday that the Indian government placed an agent at the social media giant’s office to “understand the negotiations” about new restrictions on social media, the Associated Press reported.
The Twitter employee-turned-whistleblower, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, alleged in a testimony before the United States Senate that Twitter knowingly allowed India to add agents to the company roster, possibly giving the Indian government access to sensitive data about users.
Zatko, a well-known hacker, in his first public appearance expanded on an 84-page complaint that he shared with regulators and the The Washington Post last month, stating that government agents had access to vast amount of sensitive data due to Twitter’s “basic architectural flaws”.
He had said that Twitter executives “violated the company’s articulated commitments to its users” by letting an Indian government agent have unsupervised access to its systems and data.
‘Indian government agent’ at Twitter: Update
📽️ Whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko tells US Senate Judiciary Committee ‘Indian agent’ placed to gauge company’s plans.
Here’s why you (Indians) should care:https://t.co/hnzdj0NjEL https://t.co/zP4lK1tkgw pic.twitter.com/4QR0zj2sUs
— Karnika (@KarnikaKohli) September 14, 2022
Since last year, there have been conflicts between the social media company and the Indian government in connection with the new Information Technology rules, which became effective in May last year.
Among other things, the “Information Technology (Guidelines for…
