Explained: The whistleblower claim that Twitter hired Indian Govt ‘agents’ and gave them access to its data

What has Twitter’s whistleblower alleged?

“The company did not in fact disclose to users that it was believed by the executive team that the Indian government had succeeded in placing agents on the company payroll,” Pieter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, former head of safety at Twitter said in his complaint filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

He alleged that the company had “knowingly” permitted an “Indian government agent [to have] direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data”.

In his complaint, Zatko also said that in countries where Twitter was needed to have a physical presence and full-time employees, “the threat of harm to Twitter employees was sufficient to cause Twitter to seriously consider complying with foreign government requests that Twitter would otherwise fundamentally oppose”.

He added that the Government of India, along with the governments of Russia and Nigeria, “sought, with varying success, to force Twitter to hire local FTEs (full-time employees) that could be used as leverage”.

Before joining Twitter, Mudge held senior positions at Google and Stripe, and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he received the highest award available to civilian, non-career employees.

Who could these alleged “government agents” possibly be?

In February last year, MeitY notified the Information Technology Rules, 2021. These rules mandated social media companies to hire key personnel — nodal officers — who would solely liaison with law enforcement agencies to assist them in investigations. The companies were also required to hire a compliance officer, who would ensure compliance with the rules, and a grievance officer, who would resolve user complaints.

It is unclear whether there is any link between Zatko’s claims about the company staffing a “government agent” and these employees that Twitter was mandated to hire under the IT Rules, 2021. Zatko told The Washington Post that evidence to support this claim had been shared with US intelligence.

How has Twitter responded?

In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said that Zatko was fired from his role in the company in January 2022 for “ineffective leadership and poor performance”.

“What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context. Mr Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders. Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and will continue to be,” the company spokesperson said.

How could the revelations impact Twitter’s ongoing legal actions?

The revelations come as Twitter is engaged in two high-profile legal battles — one with India’s central government over some of its content blocking orders, and another with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his attempt to pull out of his earlier $44 billion bid to buy the social media company.

Last month, Twitter had moved the Karnataka High Court asking for the overturning of the government’s order to block 39 links. Twitter has argued that the blocking orders were beyond the purview of the law.

Twitter has also sued Musk for wanting to terminate his deal of buying the company. Notably, in this legal action, Musk has alleged that the company’s decision to challenge MeitY’s blocking orders was a “departure from the ordinary course” and put its business in India “at risk”.

Twitter, in response, has stated that its actions in India are in line with its “global practice” of challenging government requests or laws if it believes that such requests are not “properly scoped under local law, are procedurally deficient, or as necessary to defend its users’ rights, including freedom of expression”.