Twitter saga continues after Zatko revelations; Parag ridicules false claims

Twitter’s Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal has lashed out at the company’s former security chief Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko terming his claims false and riddled with inaccuracies.

Reacting to ongoing saga over bots controversy with Zatko, who was fired in January, he said, “We are reviewing the redacted claims that have been published, but what we’ve seen so far is a false narrative that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and presented without important context.”

Zatko claimed that Twitter lied about the actual number of bots on its platform and misled federal regulators about users’ data safety, substantiating Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s takeover bid and withdrawal from the move.

“There are news reports outlining claims about Twitter’s privacy, security, and data protection practices that were made by Mudge Zatko, a former Twitter executive who was terminated in January 2022 for ineffective leadership and poor performance,” Agrawal said in an internal message sent to the staff.

Zatko also alleged that the Indian government forced the micro-blogging platform to hire a “government agent” and allow him access to users’ sensitive data, a claim that was trashed by Twitter.

Agrawal said that this is frustrating and confusing to read, “given Mudge was accountable for many aspects of this work that he is now inaccurately portraying more than six months after his termination”.

“But none of this takes away from the important work you have done and continue to do to safeguard the privacy and security of our customers and their data,” he told employees.

Zatko’s disclosure before SEC

According to Zatko’s disclosure before the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Twitter has “major security problems that pose a threat to its own users’ personal information, to company shareholders, to national security, and to democracy”.

Agrawal said that given the spotlight on Twitter, “we can assume that we will continue to see more headlines in the coming days — this will only make our work harder. We will pursue all paths to defend our integrity as a company and set the record straight.”