Twitter may soon face national security review from the Biden administration
Twitter has been facing an intense scrutiny over possible Russian interference in the U.S. election following the recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. The company has reportedly been taking “extensive steps to keep third-party apps from operating” on the platform, but that may soon change. According to Politico, Twitter’s security chief told a congressional committee that the company has been having an internal discussion on the issue for the last “few days” and that it would now have to implement tougher restrictions on third-party apps.
A Twitter spokesperson told the site that the company is “trying to be in alignment with what our platform is becoming and how it’s changing,” and that “we’ve made steps in the past to ensure that we aren’t the source of information for third parties.”
Twitter has faced pressure from both the American government and private-sector entities to curb the flow of third-party apps on the platform, as well. During testimony before Congress, Twitter’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, stated that the company “will take whatever action is needed to protect our users and the security of our platform.” However, according to Politico, the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, gave a different rationale when testifying before the same committee, claiming on the record that there was a problem with third-party apps running on the platform but wasn’t yet in a position to say how to eliminate those apps.
While third-party apps have been used to spread a variety of propaganda on the platform, the app developers have been hesitant to move past the platform, as users have been voicing concerns over the platform’s lack of security. Users of the app “T-Mobile Black Friday” have said they have faced a barrage of deceptive tweets on the app, including fake Black Friday promotions and tweets suggesting that shoppers would become wealthy through the company’s Black Friday deals.
“T-Mobile Black Friday” users, meanwhile, have complained that the app, which has been plagued by user spam, has turned off the ability to block users based on the users’ political views. Twitter told the outlet that it does not allow the app to run in the “background” or �
