High-Profile Employees Jump Ship As Twitter Could Face Billions In FTC Fines

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter hasn't been smooth. The purchase dragged on for months and was the subject of numerous court cases. One of the billionaire's first moves after completing the deal involved firing several board members "for cause" in a move that could open him up to more litigation. Several thousand staff members were then shown the door as the company attempted to cut costs. Some more vital ex-employees were allegedly asked back when the company realized they may have been more vital than first thought. While this was happening, Musk's other plans were going into action. 

Arguably, the most notable policy Musk pushed involves changes to Twitter's Blue subscription service and how blue checkmarks are issued. The revamped Twitter Blue launch may become a good summary of many of Twitter's problems in the first few weeks of Musk's takeover. It was rushed out in record time and then rapidly began to change as the plan's flaws became apparent. Layoffs haven't been the only reason employees are leaving Twitter. Since the takeover, several key employees have chosen to walk. According to Reuters, internal documents that have leaked reveal Twitter's chief privacy office, chief compliance officer, and chief information security officer (CISO) have all resigned. Lea Kissner, now-former CISO, confirmed their departure on Twitter.

The resignations and layoffs put Twitter in a difficult spot. Entire departments like the company's press office being almost wiped out have reduced its ability to respond to publications like The New York Times. Worse than that, the staffing issues and deadlines Musk is imposing are allegedly shifting some very complex legal burdens onto already overloaded staff from non-legal departments. This could lead to an issue that lands Twitter and Musk in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other governmental organizations.

According to The Verge, a company lawyer filled his co-workers in on the situation over Slack. In the message, the unnamed lawyer claimed that he had heard the company's current legal head, Alex Spiro, reportedly say that Musk "is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because 'Elon puts rockets into space, he's not afraid of the FTC.'"

The lawyer also claims that he has heard that the FTC compliance burden will have to "shift" to the engineers who are working on projects because of the time constraints Musk is imposing on their work. The source went on to highlight what this means for the staff who are impacted, claiming: "This will put a huge amount of personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers: I anticipate that all of you will be pressured by management into pushing out changes that will likely lead to major incidents."

The lawyer posting the message went on to give a bleak prediction of what may happen to the company as a result of the move. He predicts billions of dollars in fines will come Twitter's way, and its future as a platform may even be at risk. The Twitter lawyer's exact words on the subject reportedly were: "All of this is extremely dangerous for our users. Also, given that the FTC can (and will!) fine Twitter BILLIONS of dollars pursuant to the FTC Consent Order, extremely detrimental to Twitter's longevity as a platform. Our users deserve so much better than this." Even before Musk's takeover, Twitter has been sanctioned by the FTC. Earlier this year, the company was handed a $150 million fine for the way it had been handling user data.