Musk Again Seeks to Void X's 20-Year FTC Privacy Order After $150 Million Settlement
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Jun 4
Musk Again Seeks to Void X's 20-Year FTC Privacy Order After $150 Million Settlement
1 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Jun 4
Summary
$150 million and monitoring until 2042 remain at stake as Elon Musk again tries to escape the FTC order requiring X to undergo regular independent privacy audits.
The order followed Twitter's disclosure that a 2013-2019 coding error let phone numbers and email addresses collected for two-factor authentication be used for targeted advertising.
FTC filings say Musk's 2022 takeover heightened compliance risks after key staff were cut, with one engineer saying layoffs impaired controls and about 37% of privacy-program controls had no owner.
The agency also cited Musk's demands for internal-system access during the Twitter Files episode and said X security staff at times had to defy him to stay compliant.
Musk already failed to revoke the order in 2023, when he accused the FTC of bias; the renewed fight keeps focus on whether X can meet long-term privacy obligations.