‘Government agents hired by Twitter India forcefully for spying’: Whistleblower makes big claim

Microblogging platform Twitter and the Indian government have been embroiled in a legal battle for several months now, over the compliance of the new Information Technology laws put forth by the government, which have not yet been agreed to by the website.

A former Twitter Inc security chief has made shocking allegations against the Centre, saying that the Indian government has placed its own agents inside the company, forcing the website to hire them and keeping them on its payroll.

Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko raised the issue with the US Securities and Exchange Commission among other security lapse claims at Twitter. As per Reuters reports, the whistleblower claimed that the Indian government had access to sensitive user data through their agents in Twitter Inc.

He said the government agent would have had access to sensitive user data due to Twitter's weak security infrastructure, according to a redacted version of the complaint uploaded by the Washington Post newspaper and verified by Zatko's attorney at Whistleblower Aid.

This is not the first time that the Indian government is facing allegations when it comes to the legal battle with Twitter. The allegations about the Indian government had surfaced previously within Twitter, a company source had told Reuters.

On the basis of Zatko’s allegations, a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement, “What we've seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.”

"The company did not in fact disclose to users that it was believed by the executive team that the Indian government had succeeded in placing agents on the company payroll," Zatko's complaint noted.

These allegations have surfaced at a time when the Indian government and Twitter remain entangled in a legal battle over the compliance of the new government orders to remove content from the social media platform and alleged abuse of power by officials.

(With Reuters inputs)

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