The departures will almost certainly have an influence on Twitter’s security and privacy departments. To that end, according to a Slack message supposedly sent by a Twitter lawyer, engineers have been urged to “self-certify” that they are in compliance with FTC regulations and other laws. “This will expose engineers to a significant degree of personal, professional, and legal danger,” the statement states. “I predict that management will put pressure on all of you to implement changes that will almost certainly result in severe accidents.” The attorney, who recommended employees to seek whistleblower protection, if necessary, cautioned that such modifications are “very risky for our users.”
The FTC consent order is part of a May deal between Twitter and the commission. One of the criteria requires the corporation to implement a “comprehensive privacy and information security programme” to assess the privacy and security risks of new goods. If Twitter breaches the consent order, it might face “billions of dollars” in penalties, which would be “very harmful to Twitter’s survival as a platform,” according to the lawyer.
