Elon Musk Responds After Federal Agency Allegedly Makes 350 Demands for Internal Twitter Information

A House Judiciary Committee report claims that the Federal Trade Commission demanded Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, to hand over information and communications about the layoffs of the agency as part its investigation into the company.

Tuesday’s committee report detailed FTC alleged attempts to press Twitter. The FTC made more than 300 demands on Twitter after Musk’s Oct. 2013 takeover.

“Consisting of over a dozen FTC demand letters to Twitter that—in the span of less than three months following Musk’s acquisition—make more than 350 specific demands, this information shows how the FTC has been attempting to harass Twitter and pry into the company’s decisions on matters outside of the FTC’s mandate,” The House Judiciary Committee stated. “The timing, scope, and frequency of the FTC’s demands to Twitter suggest a partisan motivation to its action.”

Musk can be found on his social media platforms. issued He responded quickly and charged the FTC with acting in an illegal manner. He was responding to a post made by Stanford University professor Jayanta Bhattacharya, who has long been a skeptic of COVID-19 mandates, who also accused Federal government overreach

“This is a serious attack on the Constitution by a federal agency,” Musk responded. “A shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth,” He was also posted Tuesday.

The FTC spokesperson responded on Tuesday to reporters and said that this activity is part of their mandate.

“Protecting consumers’ privacy is exactly what the FTC is supposed to do,” Douglas Farrar (FTC spokesperson) told media outlets that FTC was “conducting a rigorous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent order that came into effect long before Mr. Musk purchased the company.” Farrar told According to the Wall Street Journal, it is routinely trying to get information from companies subjected consent orders.

For comment, The Epoch Times reached out to the FTC via Twitter.

What the report claims

In its report, the Judiciary Committee provided several examples of FTC requests for Twitter. The agency sought information about journalists’ work protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment in attempting to expose Big Tech’s collusion with the federal government, the report stated.

Also, it wanted to determine if Twitter is actually popular. “selling its office equipment,” reasons why Twitter sought to terminate former company general consul and former FBI official James Baker, and when the firm conceived the concept of Twitter Blue—the firm’s subscription service.

According to the report the FTC was looking for “every single internal communication ‘relating to Elon Musk,’ by any Twitter personnel—including communications sent or received by Musk—not limited by subject matter, since the day Musk bought the company,” And it was desired “information disaggregated by ‘each department, division, and/or team,’ regardless of whether the work done by these units had anything to do with privacy or information security.”

“There is no logical reason, for example, why the FTC needs to know the identities of journalists engaging with Twitter,” The GOP-controlled House Judiciary was closed. “There is no logical reason why the FTC, on the basis of user privacy, needs to analyze all of Twitter’s personnel decisions. And there is no logical reason why the FTC needs every single internal Twitter communication about Elon Musk.”

In November, Musk told Twitter workers that the firm would attempt to comply with the FTC’s mandates as Twitter has faced faced regulatory scrutiny over how it has used its data. It reached an agreement with FTC to protect users’ data.

“We are in a continuing dialogue with the FTC and will work closely with the agency to ensure we are in compliance,” said Last year, the Journal received Alex Spiro from Musk, an attorney.

President Joe Biden’s Administration and Congress Democrats expressed concern about Musk’s purchase of the company. Biden also raised concerns that the platform might become unstable. Several Democratic senators asked for an investigation by the FTC on November 17.

“We fear that Mr. Musk’s reported changes to internal reviews and data security practices further put consumers at risk and could directly violate the requirements of the consent decree,” Senators wrote Lina Khan, FTC chair at the time. “One Twitter lawyer was concerned enough about potential legal violations and management’s attitude toward the consent decree that they advised colleagues to seek legal counsel.”