Senate Judiciary Mulls Twitter Subpoena After Bipartisan Concerns

The Senate Judiciary Committee hasn’t moved to subpoena testimony from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, committee leaders told reporters Tuesday. Their comments came after bipartisan concern over data security allegations about the platform during a hearing with a company whistleblower. Tuesday’s hearing confirms that allegations from whistleblower Peiter Zatko are “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

Members from both parties focused remarks on Twitter unknowingly hiring foreign spies from China, Saudi Arabia and India, which led to data abuse. Twitter leadership is “misleading” the public, lawmakers, consumers and its board of directors, Zatko told the committee, describing his work after being hired by then-CEO Jack Dorsey to lead an overhaul of cybersecurity systems at the platform. Zatko was fired in January for “ineffective leadership and poor performance,” a Twitter spokesperson said in August (see 2208230068). Leadership ignored its own engineers because key members didn’t understand the scope of the problem, and they prioritized profits over safety, said Zatko, noting he didn’t come forth out of “spite” or to “harm” Twitter.

Ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, voiced frustration about Agrawal’s refusal to testify. If the allegations are true, it’s unclear how Agrawal can maintain his position at the company, said Grassley. Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters after the hearing that he has yet to discuss with Grassley the potential for a subpoena or a follow-up hearing.

“I’m not going to make a point about a subpoena until I talk to Durbin about it,” Grassley told reporters. “And besides, it would take the two of us together to have one anyway.” Agrawal should appear voluntarily, and “if he refuses,” a subpoena is “appropriate,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “We ought to give him another opportunity to appear voluntarily, but his refusal is unacceptable.” Tuesday’s hearing was probably more informative and forthcoming than anything Agrawal would say in testimony, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters.

Zatko’s testimony shows Twitter’s security standards are “woefully inefficient,” Durbin said during opening remarks: Thousands of employees have access to “sensitive information with little oversight.” Personal data has been potentially exposed to foreign intelligence agencies, including at least one Chinese agent who worked at Twitter, as brought forth by the FBI, noted Grassley. Congress should be mindful of the FTC’s ability or inability to oversee these issues, said Grassley.

Zatko claimed he brought “concrete evidence” of fundamental problems to the executive team, problems relayed to him by internal employees, and yet leadership chose to ignore those concerns. Leadership doesn’t know what data it collects, and therefore the data can’t be protected, he said. He argued the FTC is in “over its head,” given the size of tech companies, and the platforms are being allowed to “grade their own homework.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr weighed in on Twitter on Tuesday’s hearing, highlighting three points: Twitter lacks a handle on the scope of its bot problem, the company’s national security safeguards are “as airtight as a strainer,” and the company lacks controls on content moderation “calls.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pointed to foreign agent allegations, noting that in August, a federal jury convicted a former Twitter employee of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Saudi Arabia, accepting payments in exchange for private information about Twitter users. He was one of two former employees charged with aiding Saudi Arabia with sensitive information about Saudi dissidents. Twitter lacks the ability to look internally and identify foreign agents’ inappropriate access to data, said Zatko.

Zatko’s complaint, as well as testimony from others, suggests the U.S. needs a new agency, said Blumenthal, noting his reluctance at creating more government bureaucracy. “I’m not reaching any conclusions, but clearly what we’re doing now is not working,” he said. If Congress doesn’t have an agency that can “implement and enforce that law, then we are back where we started from,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.