US Senate Judiciary Committee to hold Twitter hearing

The US Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing today with the former head of security at Twitter, Peiter Zatko.

The hearing will focus on a recently revealed whistleblower complaint made by Zatko which alleged that Twitter had repeatedly misled regulators and the public on a wide range of issues including spam accounts and network security. Twitter continues to be in the limelight in the wake of Elon Musk’s abortive takeover of the company, and the increasingly polarized political fight against Big Tech in the United States.

This week’s hearing will not have a perceptible effect on legislation targeting either Twitter or similar tech firms. Instead, the hearings will continue to push the partisan nature in which tech regulation is being addressed. The American right distrusts tech firms because of alleged attacks on free speech and conservative groups, while the left considers the tech industry to be too monopolistic.

The hearings will also likely aid Elon Musk’s argument that Twitter’s value is artificially raised by prolific spam accounts. Musk had used this rationale for backing out of his purchase agreement earlier this year. If Musk’s lawsuit is successful, it will negatively impact Twitter’s value in the long term.