Biden FTC chair probing Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase to face grilling from Jim Jordan’s Judiciary Committee

President Biden’s Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on July 13, Politico reported Sunday. 

Khan, who is newly under investigation by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation over the allegedly “toxic environment” permeating her agency, has agreed to voluntarily appear before Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee next month. 

What will be her first appearance before the powerful oversight committee comes after Jordan, who also chairs the Judiciary’s Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee, subpoenaed Khan in April for documents regarding the FTC’s investigation into Twitter owner Elon Musk’s actions since he purchased the social media platform for $44 billion last October. 

In March, the weaponization subcommittee released a report citing “over a dozen FTC letters to Twitter that – in the span of less than three months following Musk’s acquisition – make more than 350 specific demands,” stating the new, nonpublic information “shows how the FTC has been attempting to harass Twitter and pry into the company’s decisions on matters outside of the FTC’s mandate.”

ELIZABETH WARREN, DEMOCRAT SENATORS BEMOAN ELON MUSK’S ‘PERSONAL WEALTH’ IN RAISING TWITTER PRIVACY CONCERNS

“The timing, scope and frequency of the FTC’s demands to Twitter suggest a partisan motivation to its action,” the report says. “When Musk took action to reorient Twitter around free speech, the FTC regularly followed soon thereafter with a new demand letter. The ostensible legal basis for the demand letters – including monitoring Twitter’s privacy and information security program under a revised consent decree between the company and the FTC4 – fails to provide adequate cover for the FTC’s action.”

The FTC probe is centered on whether Musk violated a May 2022 privacy settlement agreed upon before Twitter’s changing of the guard. 

In 2011, long before Musk was at the helm, the FTC filed a complaint against Twitter, alleging that the company was “misleading consumers about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information.” 

TED CRUZ PUTS BIDEN OFFICIAL ON NOTICE OVER ALLEGED ‘TOXIC ENVIRONMENT’ AT FTC

Twitter entered into a consent decree with the FTC resolving the dispute without an admission of guilt. 

In May 2022, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that Twitter violated the consent decree when it “misrepresented to users of its online communication service the extent to which it maintained and protected the security and privacy of their nonpublic contact information” from at least May 2013 to September 2019. 

Twitter reportedly took personal phone numbers and email addresses that users had provided for two-factor authentication and other security purposes, and used them for targeted advertising. The FTC and Justice Department required Twitter to pay $150 million in fines in a settlement agreement. 

The parties also entered into an updated consent decree, with additional obligations for Twitter, including requirements to create and maintain a privacy and security program. 

In November, on the day before a deadline to submit a report to the FCC, Twitter’s lead privacy, information security, and compliance officers all resigned, raising concerns about Twitter’s ability to comply with its obligations under the consent decree. 

That month, Musk began clearing house while beginning to expose Twitter’s past alleged entanglement with the U.S. government, revealing serious First Amendment and other concerns through the Twitter Files. In April, Musk confirmed that over 80% of the workforce had left Twitter since he became CEO.