Elon Musk, the tech tycoon, and Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, have publicly criticized the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for what they perceive as politically motivated targeting.
This comes in the wake of a House Judiciary report that suggests the FTC was "weaponized" against Musk and his social media platform.
According to The Post Millennial, Yaccarino expressed her concerns on X, stating, The FTC Commissioners clearly targeted our company for political reasons. To say this is troubling is an understatement. Weve worked in good faith for years with the FTC and thought they had been as well. We need answers immediately. Musk, in agreement with Yaccarino, responded succinctly, "They sure did."
The report indicates that the FTC Chair, Lina Khan, who was appointed by President Biden, introduced a consent decree against the company following Musk's acquisition of the then-Twitter in October 2022. Khan, however, refutes this, asserting that the FTC was contemplating enforcing the consent decree, a court-approved settlement agreement, prior to Musks acquisition.
Documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, however, tell a different story. They reveal that Khan called for an immediate vote just days after the announcement of Musk's acquisition of the social media platform. The committee explains that the FTC employs consent decrees to settle claims of wrongdoing and impose specific requirements on a company, and FTC lawyers can request information from the company once it has entered a consent decree.
The committee's report further discloses that in October 2019, then-Twitter self-reported a violation of its existing consent decree with the FTC and cooperated with a six-month investigation into its security practices. By March 2021, Twitter and the FTC had tentatively agreed to a settlement to resolve the FTCs security and privacy concerns, but Acting-Chair Rebecca Slaughter did not act to finalize the consent decree.
When Khan assumed leadership of the FTC in June 2021, she directed staff to recommence negotiations. By March 2022, both Twitter and the FTC had agreed to a consent decree almost identical to the previous one. However, it was only after Musk's announcement of his intention to acquire the company that Khan called for an immediate vote to finalize the settlement. The committee alleges that the FTC weaponized its regulatory authority against the social media platform, with Khan rushing the vote without allowing commissioners adequate time to review the evidence against the company.
Khan's email to commissioners revealed her urgency was due to Musk's recent acquisition of the company, contradicting her regular assertions that this was not the case. Within less than three weeks, the FTC voted to accept the decree and referred it to the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ), which subsequently filed it in federal court.
Once the consent decree came into effect on May 26, Khans FTC allegedly began harassing Twitter, demanding all communications with Musk, even those devoid of security information. The committee concluded, The only reasonable explanation, then, for requiring all communications remotely related to Musk would be as a tool for the FTC to harass Musk. This raises questions about the FTC's motives and the potential misuse of regulatory power for political ends.
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