Name: Weaponization of Government Panel Says FTC Orchestrated ‘Aggressive Campaign to Harass Twitter’
Uploaded: 2023-03-08T19:54:04.000Z
Description: The House panel investigating the weaponization of the federal government said Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has orchestrated “an aggressive campaign to harass Twitter” as part of its “unusual response” to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social network.

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

NTD Plus

News

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

JFK International Airport to Begin Ebola Screening

Reuters is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages.

Reuters

Andrew Thomas is a reporter for NTD News primarily covering business, the economy, and technology. 

Andrew Thomas

World News

Asia &amp; Pacific

Rescuers Pull First Trapped Person From Flooded Laos Cave

US, India Expect to Close Trade Deal 'In Next Weeks, Months'

Families Settle Lawsuit in Baltimore Bridge Collapse

Rubio Meets With Pakistani Foreign Minister Amid Iran Talks

Trump Refiles $10 Billion Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal

US Says Embassy in Kyiv Remains Open

Australia Sues 3M Over 'Forever Chemicals'

US, Mexico Launch USMCA Talks

Chris Summers is a UK-based journalist covering a wide range of national stories, with a particular interest in crime, policing and the law. 

Chris Summers

Europe

EU Fines Temu $232 Million for Failing to Prevent Sale of Dangerous, Illegal Products

Stefania Cox is an NTD News anchor and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Stefania anchors "NTD Newsroom," and co-anchors "NTD News Today" weekdays at 10:00 am ET.

Stefania Cox

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 29)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 28)

Kevin Hogan is an NTD News data reporter and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Kevin covers breaking news, as well as U.S. and global current events. He conveys the news through data visualizations and investigates pressing issues.

Kevin Hogan

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 27)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 26)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 25)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 22)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 21)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 20)

Paul Greaney is an NTD news anchor and producer. Since joining the company in 2018, he has anchored the station’s flagship Evening News broadcast, launched the NTD Business show, and produced documentary reports on pointed issues. 

The highlight of Paul’s time in the field was his coverage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Paul Greaney

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 19)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 18)

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

US News

State News

California

More Than 17,000 Under Evacuation Orders as Southern California Wildfire Threatens Homes

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Rudy Blalock is a Southern California-based daily news reporter for NTD. Originally from Michigan, he moved to California in 2017 and the sunshine and ocean have kept him here since. In his free time, he may be found underwater scuba diving, on top of a mountain hiking or snowboarding, or at home meditating—which helps fuel his active lifestyle.

Rudy Blalock

40,000 Ordered to Evacuate as Chemical Tank Leaks, Threatens Explosion in California

Video of US Fighter Jet Shooting Down UFO Over Lake Huron Emerges in New Pentagon Files

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

Middle East

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

US Government Sues Chick-fil-A Over Religious Rights

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

Sports News

Kyle Busch, Two-Time NASCAR Champion, Dies at 41

Haika Mrema

Medical Plane Crash in New Mexico Mountains Kills 4, Sparks Wildfire

Daniel Monaghan is a reporter for NTD News covering culture, social issues, and education. He holds a BA in Political Science and Government.

Daniel Monaghan

California Mayor Resigns, Will Plead Guilty to Acting as Chinese Agent

The House panel investigating the weaponization of the federal government said Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has orchestrated “an aggressive campaign to harass Twitter” as part of its “unusual response” to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social network.

The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim report highlighting the FTC’s apparent overreach in making more than 350 specific demands for information within a period of less than three months after Musk took the helm.

According to the report, the federal agency inundated Twitter with demands to reveal information about hiring and firing decisions and “every internal communication relating to Elon Musk.”

Particularly concerning for the panel, the FTC wanted the names of journalists who were granted access to internal Twitter files during their work “to expose abuses by Big Tech and the federal government.”

Among others, the FTC sent over 60 letters demanding information about Twitter’s subscription product alone. The agency also demanded to know if Twitter was “selling its office equipment” and “all of the reasons” why former FBI official Jim Baker was fired.

“These demands have no basis in the FTC’s statutory mission and appear to be the result of partisan pressure to target Twitter and silence Musk,” the report states (<a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Weaponization_Select_Subcommittee_Report_on_FTC_Harrassment_of_Twitter_3.7.2023.pdf">pdf</a>).

The committee said it recently obtained dozens of nonpublic FTC letters to Twitter, which it noted fall directly within its authority to investigate and report “on instances of the federal government’s authority being weaponized against U.S. citizens.”
<figure id="attachment_5093391" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 600px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">

The U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 1, 2023. (Stefani Reynolds/ AFP via Getty Images)

</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Demands for Journalists’ Names ‘Inappropriate’</h2>
The House committee’s report criticizes the FTC’s demand for information about journalists, calling it inappropriate in any setting.

The report emphasizes that the FTC’s “campaign to harass Twitter” could have a chilling effect on the ability of journalists to report on matters of public interest and calls for greater protection of First Amendment rights.

After journalist Matt Taibbi published the first installment of the “<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/infographic-key-revelations-of-the-twitter-files_4986669.html">Twitter Files</a>,” exposing a government-Big Tech censorship machine, the FTC sent its first letter to Twitter.

The panel’s report notes it was telling that the FTC’s first demand “did not concern what private user information may have been at risk.”

“Instead, the FTC demanded that Twitter ‘[i]dentify all journalists and other members of the media to whom’ Twitter has granted access to since Musk bought the company.”

The FTC named the journalists involved in the initial disclosures, including Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and Abigail Shrier.

The agency also demanded to know any “other members of the media to whom You have granted any type of access to the Company’s internal communications for any reason whatsoever,” according to the report.

“There is no reason the FTC needs to know every journalist with whom Twitter was engaging. Even more troubling than the burden on the company, the FTC’s demand represents a government inquiry into First Amendment-protected activity,” the report states.

“It is an agency of the federal government demanding that a private company reveal the names of the journalists who are engaged in reporting about matters of public interest, including potential government misconduct,” the report continues. “While the FTC’s inquiry would be inappropriate in any setting, it is especially inappropriate in the context of journalists disclosing how social media companies helped the government to censor online speech.”

Musk responded on Twitter regarding reports about the federal agency’s request for the names of journalists.

“This is a serious attack on the Constitution by a federal agency,” Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1633240925429288960?s=20">said</a>.
<figure id="attachment_5103273" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 600px;">

Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco, California, on Jan. 24, 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

</figure>
<h2>‘Politically Motivated’ Left Wing Pressure</h2>
The FTC used its consent decree with Twitter as a pretext to harass the social network and received pressure from left-wing individuals and groups, according to the report. That consent agreement, which was later revised, acts as a safeguard of users’ personal information.

In 2022, before Musk’s takeover, FTC Chair Lina Khan assured the Judiciary Committee that the agency “acts only in the public interest” and is “confined” by its statutory authority, the report states.

However, the nonpublic information obtained by the House panel disputes this.

Citing its revised consent agreement, the FTC “began its barrage of demands” just two weeks after Musk became the CEO in October 2022.

The day it fired off its first letters, the agency said publicly that it was “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern” and warned that the “revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”

The report notes that the timing of the FTC’s actions “strongly suggests that its reliance on the consent decree is a pretext.” The report notes that Musk became CEO of Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022, and that the FTC sent its first two letters with over a dozen demands on Nov. 10, 2022.

However, under the terms of the revised consent agreement, which formed the pretext of the FTC’s actions, Twitter was not required to implement its new privacy and information security program until Nov. 22, 2022.

“In other words, the FTC started this heavy-handed compliance monitoring two weeks after Musk acquired Twitter, but two weeks before there was even a program in place to monitor,” the report states.

The report states that left-wing individuals and groups pressured the federal government to take action, citing their objections to Musk’s stated intentions to make Twitter a bastion of free speech on the internet.

Among the left-wing groups vocal in their objections to Musk’s purchase of Twitter was an organization called Open Markets Institute, where FTC Chair Khan once worked.

This organization, described in the report as a “left-wing political advocacy” group, wrote to the FTC specifically urging it to use its consent agreement “as a vehicle to attempt to thwart Musk’s efforts to reorient the company” toward his free speech goals, the report states.

“The strong inference from these facts is that Twitter’s rediscovered focus on free speech is being met with politically motivated attempts to thwart Elon Musk’s goals,” the report states.

“The FTC’s demands did not occur in a vacuum. They appear to be the result of loud voices on the left—including elected officials—urging the federal government to intervene in Musk’s acquisition and management of the company,” the report continues. “The FTC’s harassment of Twitter is likely due to one fact: Musk’s self-described ‘absolutist’ commitment to free expression in the digital town square.”

In a statement to The Epoch Times, an FTC spokesperson defended its investigation into Twitter’s compliance with the consent decree.

“Protecting consumers’ privacy is exactly what the FTC is supposed to do,” the spokesperson said. “It should come as no surprise that career staff at the commission are conducting a rigorous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent order that came into effect long before Mr. Musk purchased the company.”

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/weaponization-of-government-panel-says-ftc-orchestrated-aggressive-campaign-to-harass-twitter_5106847.html">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Videos

twitter

Politics

04_Top Stories

Latest Clips

Management

Caden Pearson is a reporter covering U.S. and world news.

Caden Pearson

02_Second Lead

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.