Congressional Republicans subpoena the FTC for asking Twitter too many questions

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed the Federal Trade Commission for documents related to its ongoing privacy investigation into Elon Musk’s Twitter, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the committee, authorized the subpoena sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan, accusing the agency of refusing to comply with a handful of other requests the committee has made over the last few months. The demand requires the FTC to hand over all internal communications related to Musk’s October 2022 purchase of Twitter.

In his letter to Khan Wednesday, Jordan accused the FTC of making “inappropriate and burdensome demands” of Musk’s Twitter, calling the agency’s responses to past requests for information “woefully insufficient.”

Shortly after Musk purchased Twitter last year, the FTC said it was monitoring the platform’s abilities to protect the security of users’ information. In a recent report, Jordan’s committee found that the FTC had sent at least a dozen demand letters to the company since Musk took over.

“The FTC respects the important role of Congressional oversight. We have made multiple offers to brief Chairman Jordan’s staff on our investigation into Twitter. Those are standing offers made prior to this entirely unnecessary subpoena,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said in a statement to The Verge Wednesday.

The FTC’s investigation is reportedly centered around the platform’s abilities to uphold data security promises it made to the agency more than 10 years ago. In 2011, Twitter reached an agreement with the FTC to settle charges that the company had mishandled user data, ultimately allowing hackers unauthorized access to user accounts. As part of that agreement, Twitter was required to create “a comprehensive privacy and information security program” to protect users.