New Delhi, Aug 24 : Twitter’s CEO of Indian origin Parag Agrawal has lashed out at the previous head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko and said his false claims are “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and presented without any important context”.Agrawal was out in the open about bots controversy after a lengthy period of time because Zatko who was dismissed by Twitter in January of this year due to “poor performance” said on Tuesday that Twitter did not disclose the real number of bots it had on its platform, and misled regulators in the federal government regarding the safety of users’ data.
“There are reports in the media that detail the claims regarding Twitter’s security, privacy and data security practices, which were presented by Mudge Zatko who was a former Twitter executive who was fired in January 2022 over poor leadership and ineffective results,” Agrawal said in an internal memo addressed to staff.
“We are looking over the claims that have been redacted and been released but what we’ve found thus far is a deceitful story that is filled with inconsistencies and errors, and presented with no background information,” he noted.
Zatko also claimed that the Indian government compelled the micro-blogging platform to employ an “government agent” and give access to user’s sensitive information, a claim that was dismissed by Twitter.
Agrawal said that this was difficult and confusing to be able to “given Mudge was accountable for a number of aspects of this work which he is now presenting incorrectly about six months later after his dismissal”.
“But nothing of this will diminish the important work that you have done and will continue to do to ensure the security and privacy of our clients and their personal information,” he told employees.
As per Zatko’s whistleblower report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as discovered from CNN as well as The Washington Post, Twitter has “major security issues that could pose a risk to its users’ personal data and company shareholders and national security and even to the democratic process”.
Agrawal said that in light of the attention being paid to Twitter right now, “we can assume that we will get more headlines in the days ahead -which will only push our job more difficult”.
“We will explore all avenues to protect our credibility as a business and clear the record,” Agrawal told employees.
na/dpb
