Twitter Fined $150m in United States

Twitter in the United States has been fined $150 million (£119 million) after law enforcement officials accused it of illegally using user data to sell targeted ads. According to court documents, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice claim that Twitter violated an agreement with regulators. Twitter had vowed to not give personal information like phone numbers and email addresses to advertisers.

According to federal investigators, the social media company violated these rules. In December 2020, Twitter was fined £400,000 for violating Europe's GDPR data privacy rules. The FTC is an independent US government agency whose mission is to enforce antitrust law and promote consumer protection.

It charges Twitter with violating a 2011 FTC order that expressly prohibits the company from misrepresenting its privacy and security practices. Twitter's platform, which allows users ranging from consumers to celebrities to corporations to post 280-character messages, or tweets, generates the majority of its revenue.

According to a complaint filed on behalf of the FTC by the Department of Justice, Twitter began asking users in 2013 to provide either a phone number or an email address to improve account security. "As the complaint notes, Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes, but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads," said Lina Khan, who chairs the FTC.