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

According to a House Judiciary Committee Report, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), demanded from Elon Musk that he hand over internal communications of the agency and details about layoffs in an investigation into Twitter.

According to the March 7th report of the FTC, it detailed how the FTC tried to exert pressure on Twitter. The FTC also demanded hundreds of additional demands from Twitter following Musk’s Oct 2022 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 committee stated. “The timing, scope, and frequency of the FTC’s demands to Twitter suggest a partisan motivation to its action.”

Musk uses social media to share his thoughts. issued The FTC was accused of unconstitutional behavior. He gave a brief response. He was responding to a post by Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya, a longtime skeptic of COVID-19 mandates, who also accused The federal government is in overreach

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

The FTC spokesperson stated in response to reporters that such activity is within the agency’s mandate.

“Protecting consumers’ privacy is exactly what the FTC is supposed to do,” Douglas Farrar (FTC spokesperson) told news 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 The Wall Street Journal said that it regularly tries to get information from companies subject to consent orders.

FTC and Twitter officials did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by press time.

The Report’s Content

A report by the Judiciary Committee outlined examples of FTC demands 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.

The company also wanted to know if Twitter was effective. “selling its office equipment,” reasons why Twitter sought to terminate former company general counsel 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,” It was sought “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 ended. “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.”

Musk informed Twitter employees in November 2022 that the company would comply with FTC mandates. Twitter is currently under scrutiny for how it uses its data. To ensure users’ privacy, the firm reached an agreement with FTC.

“We are in a continuing dialogue with the FTC and will work closely with the agency to ensure we are in compliance,” Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer told The Journal published the following year.

President Joe Biden and Congress Democrats have expressed concern about Musk’s purchase of the company. They claim that it could lead to insecurity. Several Democratic senators asked for an investigation by the FTC on November 17, 2022.

“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 that 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.”