By Karnika Kohli / Scroll
A Twitter whistleblower’s allegations that the Indian government forced the company to hire at least one individual who was a government agent and had access to user data should be taken seriously, warn experts in the technology and policy sectors.
Given the enormous access technology giants like Twitter have to user data, a leak to a state or a rogue actor can undermine organisations that the government finds inconvenient. It can also endanger the personal safety of users, especially those viewed as political dissidents or those who belong to minority groups, say experts.
The claims about the Indian government were made by former Twitter security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, according to a leaked disclosure reported by The Washington Post on August 23.
Amidst a host of other allegations about lax security at Twitter, Zatko said that the platform’s transparency reports did not “disclose to users that it was believed by the executive team that the Indian government had succeeded in placing agents on the company payroll”.
The disclosure added: “By knowingly permitting an Indian government agent direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data, Twitter executives violated the company’s articulated commitments to its users.”
Other countries that were able to pressure Twitter to hire local full-time employees are Nigeria, which banned the platform in 2021, and Russia, Zatko alleged.
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