Twitter sure is having a busy time with Jack Dorsey stepping off the board of directors on Wednesday, Elon Musk upping his commitment in the Twitter deal to $33.5 billion, and FTC coming after the company with a $150 million fine on allegations of misrepresenting user data security.
Dorsey steps down from the board of directors
Dorsey had already begun distancing himself from Twitter after resigning as CEO last year, which further set the plan to step down from the board of directors. Dorsey stated that he was staying until his term expired, at the 2022 stockholder meeting.
He’s also on good terms with Elon Musk and has discussed rolling over his 2.4% stake in the company into the deal.
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Musk boosts commitment to $33.5 billion
Speaking of which, Musk is planning to front $33.5 billion in his deal to buy Twitter. According to CNBC, he’s also in talks with Dorsey and others to help finance the deal or roll their shares.
Musk is also expected to serve as temporary CEO for at least a few months following the completion of his controversial $44 billion deal. The news made Twitter shares go up 5% while Tesla slid down by 1%.
The deal has been controversial since the start, even more so when Musk recently announced that he’s putting the deal on hold following reports stating that fake accounts on the platform were around 20%, much higher than Twitter’s 5% claim.
FTC fines Twitter $150 million for infringing on people’s privacy
Last but not least, the micro-blogging site has agreed to pay a $150 million fine to the FTC following allegations that it misused users’ private information for advertising after telling them it was doing so for enabling two-factor authentication between May 2013 and September 2019. The settlement also requires Twitter to do better when it comes to compliance practices.
According to the court complaint, the misrepresentation violated an FTC act and a 2011 administrative order from the agency banning Twitter from misrepresenting its security and privacy practices. Overall, this has affected over 140 million users.
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