In a Republican administration the leftist media would be going bananas asking why the Federal Trade Commission is requiring Twitter to notify them of which journalists have had access to internal communication files. Alas, with a Democrat administration in office, the FTC demand is not an issue.
It would appear the mechanisms of government are aligned to fight back against any sunlight that might be provided upon the government manipulation of the social media platform.
In a profound display of institutional hubris, the U.S. government claims they are concerned about user privacy as the justification for their involvement.
In addition to the U.S. government demanding to know who may have reviewed the Twitter company communication with the U.S. government, the FTC is also looking for a deposition from Twitter CEO Elon Musk about the status of the company.
(Via Wall Street Journal) – WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission has demanded Twitter Inc. turn over internal communications related to owner Elon Musk, as well as detailed information about layoffs—citing concerns that staff reductions could compromise the company’s ability to protect users, documents viewed by the Wall Street Journal show.
In 12 letters sent to Twitter and its lawyers since Mr. Musk’s Oct. 27 takeover, the FTC also asked the company to “identify all journalists” granted access to company records and to provide information about the launch of the revamped Twitter Blue subscription service, the documents show.
“We are concerned these staff reductions impact Twitter’s ability to protect consumers’ information,” an FTC official wrote to Twitter’s lawyers on Nov. 10 following an initial wave of layoffs, according to a copy of the letter viewed by the Journal.
[…] “Protecting consumers’ privacy is exactly what the FTC is supposed to do,” said FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar. He said the agency is “conducting a rigorous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent order that came into effect long before Mr. Musk purchased the company.” (read more)
That last paragraph is particularly filled with irony and hubris, considering the same U.S. govt concerned about “consumer privacy” is the same U.S. govt who demanded Twitter reveal the identities of users in order to enhance targeting efforts.
Commies are forced into work now. Not something they are used too. That’s how we beat them.
Make them work.
Lord knows they don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell on a level playing field. Living a life of corruption and part of the rigged system means never having to compete or be the most talented to succeed. Everything is handed to them, any competition squashed, some never had to put in an honest days work in their life.
I am often reminded though, that there’s no honor among thieves, and they will sell anyone out to save their own hide.
They already know
Lol
Fact check: True
Side Note: didn’t I read somewher about Stacy Abrams vying for a spot on the FTC? Is the FTC being looked at as a structure from which to launch grabs for power and the ability to to run rough a od over privacy for sake of the citizens they are “protecting”?
Kind of a bizarre invasion of space by the FTC, encroaching . . . odd, like the Energy Dept. looking into the “Covid” origins.
What you have here are executive agencies vis a vis fiefdoms, all vying for more power by asserting influence in disparate places unrelated to their primary function(s).
Proof positive that they need to be downsized immediately.
You put it into (better) words for me!
Fiefdoms – disparate places – etc.
Yes, the agencies, the Shadow government.
“run roughshod”
Name me an agency that hasn’t been weaponized.
After all, Twitter is a government division….along with being a sewer.
They just don’t care about anything anymore.
Just heard news on PBS come on to say Tucker is spreading misinformation.
How about we have fellow Americans in this country whose rights have been thrown away and have been rotting in jail because of all lies.
This if infuriating. It was a peaceful protest and hijacked by the feds and a fake narrative spun for 2 years. These people need to pay for this.
Musk should say he will release all the names in 50 years like the pharma companies wanted to do for the covid vaxes.
Excellent suggestion!
Tweet it to him
Actually…that was 75 years…they wanted to make sure most of us were dead or close to it until the Truth came out. It was the Jan. 6 Committee that wanted to hide their documents and video for 50 years! Both lost on both accounts…thank goodness! We are still trying to get the JFK files due to this kind of policy. By then, they have had so much time to reconstruct the evidence that its not truth. Like the 911 commission, that was designed to cover, not reveal the Truth! Like the Mueller…Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. Never an investigation…it was for the cover up!
I can’t remember if it was in the 1970’s or 1980’s but there was some division of the DOJ, might have been the FBI, that was subpoenaing library records to find out what books certain people were checking out of the library, and think it was the ACLU that sued to stop that practice; something about personal papers and privacy, think it had something to do with the DOJ wanting to be able to verify if certain underground movements were checking out books on how to build certain things of a destructive nature.
If my memory is right, I believe the ACLU won that case and may give Mr. Twitter an avenue to use in responding to this odd search and seizure of records against the freedom of the press.
You are correct, but I only remember a large majority of librarians being against it and refusing to report anyone.
Didn’t Biden appoint some weird person to head up the Library unit that the Feds use to control Library actions? Since Biden, it seems that Libraries are in the news everywhere and it is not usually good news.
That’s the problem, it’s been a few decades and too many things to remember details; but do remember the outrage by librarians, the “progressives” and ACLU all saying “how dare you!” with government intrusion.
The Department of Homeland Security gets library records now as part of the Patriot Act
Elon should turn over tens of thousands of documents, with everything blacked out and redacted, just like the the crimin… uh, government, always does to us 😂🤣😂
Also a great suggestion.
“To protect “sources and methods”, “persons privacy” and “proprietary information” it was neccesary to redact SOME info, for Twitters Security.
Give em like, one word per page…
Or the redactions form the image of a raised middle finger! 😉
One word per page:
The….
“Pl e a s e “
META aka Facebook has thousands of layoffs planned. Where is the FTC outrage?
This reminds me of when the IRS wanted the donor lists of Tea Parties, so they could enhance their targeting efforts, as well.
Elon should continue to give them the one fingered salute.
I had some Internet friends who told me about the IRS using those lists to attack their business. More than one Internet friend from my HS.
In my opinion, it is none of FTC’s business.
Well, there goes the theory that the government put Elon up to buy Twitter, trust him to clean it up and project a new, safer school boy image that the world can trust with their Tweets. If the government can’t trust Elon with Twitter, how can they trust him with SpaceX? What to do, what to do.
This was a poor move on the part of the Democrats. It reveals much about them and potentially continued tyrannical moves with respect to Twitter.
DEMOCRATS have evolved into despicable human beings. CASE closed on what they are.
Socialists Democrats are dangerous and all other Democrats are just followers. None of them know that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
There’s a few Republicans we could add too… but I get your point Sato…every Democrat is corrupt…even Manchin
All Dems are roaches. Many years ago I began praying to God to please cause someone to invent a way to eliminate roaches. My prayers were answered. The vaccines. My wife never misses a day to tell me about all the roaches she sees or hears about in her travels thru Fakebook bragging to everyone about having gotten the latest jab. She swears that these people are actually keeping score. She knows they are roaches as they are all wearing face diapers. I have decided to read the Bible a second time.
I think at this point “the Uniparty” doesn’t quite cut it anymore.
I’m calling them what they really are – Spectre.
Do not cooperate Musk.
You can’t cover up your malfeasance and the truth if you don’t know who to threaten.
Paragraph 1:
“In a Republican administration…Alas, with a Democrat administration…”
Since the middle bit of the paragraph offers up some Hobson’s Choice soup du jour, I didn’t include it.
You’d have to update that bit tomorrow anyway or whever the chicken broth runs out.
The UniParty is masterful at playing these seey-sawy games where nothing of substance ever hangs in the balance. Pearl-clutching optics. Same ole soup, different jour.
I had hoped it would be easier to swing Sundance over to the commanding reality of the UniParty, especially since he’s one of its most eloquent spokesmen.
But I confess it’s been harder than I thought
This article in Unheard lays out much of what’s been said here
worth a read
https://unherd.com/2023/03/the-battle-to-control-americas-mind/
Pretty much none of their damn business.
So in essence if these communications were done by mail with the postal service or face to face the FTC would want to read your mail or record every conversation to use the information ultimately against you ???
Sounds like a police state tactics !
The fact that twitter had government informants on the payroll and the new owner sent them packing has the deep state panties in a wad !
This is where regulatory agencies play law enforcement with out any evidence so the go fishing
FUKEM DELAY as long as possible make them earn everything they want but redact all names addresses etc …
That’s what they do to you
While claiming transparency and cooperation
Elon Musk’s response was posted on TGP:
Elon Musk responded to the Biden Regime’s latest effort to harass him for revealing the truth: “A shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth!”
With the breadth of surveillance already occurring, the alphabet agencies already know which organizations have had access to the files. Anyone not having a flip phone is already being tracked overtly and flip phone users can be tracked with a little more effort.
“And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized” -Acts 9:18
We are reaching the point where all things are renewed.
The question is will it be essentially a revitalization and revival of civic engagement or will it be something that emerges from the fertilizing ashes of (collectively self-imposed) judgement and destruction?
the sin of the Amorites is at it’s full measure once again
God have mercy
Expose it all
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/what-ftc-does
The Federal Trade Commission enforces a variety of antitrust and consumer protection laws affecting virtually every area of commerce, with some exceptions concerning banks, insurance companies, non-profits, transportation and communications common carriers, air carriers, and some other entities. The agency leverages its resources and targets its enforcement efforts at practices that cause the greatest harm to consumers.
The basic statute enforced by the FTC, Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, empowers the agency to investigate and prevent unfair methods of competition, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce. This creates the Agency’s two primary missions: protecting competition and protecting consumers. The statute gives the FTC authority to seek relief for consumers, including injunctions and restitution, and in some instances to seek civil penalties from wrongdoers. The FTC has the ability to implement trade regulation rules defining with specificity acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive and the Commission can publish reports and make legislative recommendations to Congress about issues affecting the economy. The Commission enforces various antitrust laws under Section 5(a) of the FTC Act as well as the Clayton Act. The FTC monitors all its orders to ensure compliance.
Overview of the FTC’s investigative and law enforcement authority
The FTC conducts regular reviews of all its rules and guides on a rotating basis to make sure they are up-to-date, effective, and not overly burdensome. The agency has been doing these reviews since 1992, and has eliminated dozens of rules and modified many others to keep pace with changes in the marketplace.
All FTC investigations are non-public. If a company itself announces that it is the subject of an FTC investigation, we can confirm that fact. However, we can’t discuss complaints about specific companies or the status of ongoing investigations. Broad categories of complaints filed with FTC and other organizations can be found on our Consumer Sentinel website.
Apparently the FTC is “concerned that staff reductions [will] impact Twitter’s ability to protect consumer’s information.”
If that is a real concern, who decides whether or not layoffs will compromise Twitter’s ability to protect consumer information? Does the FTC decide, does the CEO of Twitter decide, or does somebody unknown decide?
Wait just a minute! Do they want to know just the “journalists” ? What about those of us that “reviewed” the Twitter files on line!! Maybe I should expect an early morning FTC Swat team trying to break down MY door? Note to the FTC Swatters…….I get up kinda early, you may want to break in before 0500 hrs!!
Frankly, I suspect that if we didn’t have social media in which to protest about our grievances, we might be more active in attempting to stop this government onslaught of control. Instead we type angrily on our computers about genetic experiments, covid lockdowns, Jan 6 videos, election fraud, corrupt of courts, impotence of SCOTUS, first amendment rights, 2nd amendment rights, etc., etc. Our posts on social media, the internet, etc., do nothing other than attempt to wake people up, nod in agreement over issues, or argue about them, etc. At some point, we need to actually DO something about this.
Gee what a surprise, ANOTHER gubbermit agency demanding illegal information. How about F you ftc, shove it where the sun don’t shine.
What an opportunity wasted to cause some mischief …
Hand over as well as publish list of contacts with only names of Democrat and US Government supporting reporters as well as whom they contacted … that would cause some consternation constipation.
Why is “demand” always associated with leftists.
Show me your papers, comrade……
Gee where was their “concern” all those years people were being blocked and shadow banned? The whole of the USSA regime is rancid and fetid.
Hitler would be jealous of todays U.S. government. All they have left to do is bring in the freight cars and fire up the furnace.
I don’t remember which section of the Constitution gives them this authority.
Their UNCONSTITUTIONAL patriot act…THTHTHAT’S ALL FOLKS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~