The Reshuffle
Taking note of the allegations from one of its former employee, the microblogging site Twitter has decided to club its health and service teams. The newly formed group called “Health and Product Services” (HPS) is expected to be led by the new employee Ella Erwin. HP’s head Ella Erwin has said that the team would prioritize its project and the team needs to come together to focus on specific problems. The health team of Twitter is entrusted to look after content on the platform, while the services team keeps a tab on bots.
According to Peiter Mudge Zatko, the former Twitter cybersecurity head, the microblogging site has violated the rules and is yet to present a complete picture of bots.
Pieter Mudge Zatko Disclosure
Pieter Mudge Zatko, the former Twitter employee in his 84-page document, has attempted to highlight the loopholes in the security of Twitter. He, making a direct reference to bots in his revelations has alleged that the counting of fake accounts is not based on the right data set and the number of bots is far higher than projected. The number of bots has been one of the major points of contestation in Twitter’s deal with Elon Musk.
Besides the above allegations, the whistleblower has alleged that India had a way out to some of the sensitive information of Twitter users. Twitter has countered the Zatko claim by putting its weight behind its estimation of bots and saying that the revelations made by him are aimed at gaining attention. According to news reports Twitter allegedly fired its former employee after the loopholes came to his notice.
Twitter CEO Parag Aggarwal has responded to the allegation saying, “Peiter Zatko’s Claims are baseless and are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and presented without important context”.
Parag wrote to his employees, “I know this is frustrating and confusing to read, given Mudge was accountable for many aspects of this work that he is now inaccurately portraying more than six months after his termination. But none of this takes away from important work you have done and continue to do so to safeguard the privacy and security of our customers and their data”.
Twitter CEO Parag Aggarwal has responded to the Indian government agent allegation saying that, the whistleblower allegation linking the Indian government, is a recipe for disaster.
Twitter versus Tesla
This new development comes at a time when the microblogging site is engaged in battle with Elon musk who has accused Twitter of hiding information on fake accounts. Twitter has also lost its employees which have also affected its operations on toxic and harmful content, in recent months. The five-day court hearing between Twitter and Elon Musk in Delaware is scheduled to start on the 17th of September.
