PARIS — France’s knowledge safety watchdog CNIL is investigating a whistleblower’s claims that Twitter made “egregious” misrepresentations to worldwide regulators about its knowledge safety measures.
“The CNIL is presently learning the grievance filed to the [U.S.] Securities and Change Fee, the Federal Commerce Fee and the U.S. Division of Justice,” the French company mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. “If the accusations are right, the CNIL may take motion resulting in authorized proceedings or a sanction, if it is clear there have been breaches.”
The Washington Submit first reported Tuesday that Twitter’s former head of safety Peiter Zatko made the accusations in a grievance alleging that the tech firm violated the phrases of a settlement with the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee by falsely claiming it had a strong safety plan. Zatko additionally mentioned that privateness ought to change into Twitter’s No. 1 precedence “in gentle of the egregious and ongoing misrepresentations to the FTC, French and Irish regulators,” in accordance with the grievance.
A CNIL spokesperson mentioned the regulator solely discovered of the allegations on Tuesday with the Washington Submit report. Eire’s knowledge watchdog additionally met with Twitter representatives after the stories on Zatko’s claims.
One in all Zatko’s alleged “misrepresentations” was an replace to the platform late final yr to adjust to orders from the CNIL, which Zatko mentioned was “blocked [from] rolling out” for a month “to be able to extract most revenue from French customers.”
Twitter has denied Zatko’s allegations.
