Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to two people familiar with the matter, in a series of layoffs and resignations, two key teams that Twitter relies on complying with regulatory regulations are suddenly left unavailable, according to two people familiar with the matter. this has led to a surge in the risk of investigations and huge fines for the social media giant.

The departure of a large number of people has heightened concerns that staff turnover following the takeover of Elon Musk will undermine Twitter's ability to comply with rules designed to protect user data.

After two members were fired and three others resigned, Twitter's internal data governance committee, which oversees the company's compliance with the FTC consent Act, no longer exists, according to people familiar with the matter. According to the consent Act, Twitter should better protect users' personal data.

According to previous posts on Twitter's website, the data Governance Committee was established in November 2021 to oversee decisions on how to collect, access and disclose user data. The committee also tries to help the company comply with Twitter's privacy policy.

Meanwhile, the committee that manages Twitter's compliance with the EU's General data Protection regulations (GDPR) was shut down after Mr Musk fired Vijaya Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's lead lawyer, and Sinead McSweeney, global vice president for public policy. Last month, McSweeney, who lives in Dublin, obtained a court injunction forbidding Twitter to terminate its employment relationship with her.

The committee played a key role in helping to review the work of Twitter products and engineering teams to ensure they did not violate Europe's complex rules on the transmission and processing of EU citizen data, according to people familiar with the matter. Members of the committee meet once a month, two of whom are in Dublin.

Without the participation of the above-mentioned committee members, Mr. Musk made a number of decisions about the new product on an ad hoc basis, people familiar with the matter said. Regulators may conclude that Twitter's Irish office no longer effectively monitors the data of EU citizens. If that happens, any EU member state will have the right to investigate and fine Twitter.

Twitter, whose Dublin office is also its EU headquarters, has been designated as the "controller" of European citizen data in order to comply with GDPR requirements. Last month, two remaining Twitter employees in the Brussels office of the regulatory center also chose to leave.

The departures heightened concerns among the remaining Twitter employees that they might be held responsible for violating FTC rules, prompting Mr Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, to assure them in a memo that they would not go to jail if the company was found to have violated the law.

Overall, more than 100 members of the security and privacy team have left the company since Mr Musk took the helm in October. This has halved the number of people responsible for protecting Twitter's infrastructure from cyber attacks and data leaks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Irish regulator, which oversees Twitter in the EU, said on Monday it was "very concerned" about Twitter's ability to comply with EU laws. The agency has been in touch with the Twitter office in Dublin almost every day after maintenance concerns over employee departures in recent weeks.

Last month, Twitter's chief information security officer, chief privacy officer and chief compliance officer resigned. Twitter then appointed Renato Monteiro (Renato Monteiro) as interim data protection officer. Monteiro is based in Dublin and served as the company's legal adviser on data protection in Latin America.

However, Monteiro has barely been involved in US product engineering and development teams since he was appointed, according to people familiar with the matter. Monteiro didn't respond to a request for comment. It is not clear who else might be responsible for Twitter's compliance with FTC and GDPR rules.

The layoffs and resignations of team members also mean that Twitter does not have enough people to oversee the maintenance of about 400 different information security standards. Twitter usually assigns dedicated staff to maintain these standards, including ensuring that the company encrypts user data correctly to ensure its security. At the same time, the company conducts an independent assessment of compliance with these standards every two years to ensure compliance with the requirements of the FTC consent Act.

FTC says they are closely following developments on Twitter. The powers of European data regulators increased overnight in May 2018, just as GDPR took effect, giving them the power to impose fines up to 4 per cent of the company's annual sales.

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