WASHINGTON—The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the Federal Trade Commission for documents related to the agency’s continuing privacy investigation of Twitter Inc., according to a committee aide and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Rep.
Jim Jordan
(R., Ohio), the committee chair, authorized the subpoena sent Wednesday to FTC Chair
Lina Khan,
the aide said, on grounds that the FTC hasn’t cooperated with previous written and verbal requests for information.
In a letter accompanying the subpoena, Mr. Jordan said the agency has failed to comply with the committee’s March 10 request for all documents and communications related to the probe. Mr. Jordan contended the FTC made “inappropriate and burdensome” demands of Twitter and its owner,
Elon Musk.
The FTC had no immediate comment. Ms. Khan has previously told Mr. Jordan that FTC investigations are confidential.
“Ensuring compliance with FTC orders is critical, especially when dealing with Recidivists,” she said in a March 27 letter, a reference to Twitter’s history of privacy and security missteps. “The FTC will continue to faithfully discharge our statutory obligations and enforce the law without fear or favor.”
The FTC has been conducting an investigation of Twitter’s compliance with a 2022 FTC order, which the company signed to settle allegations that it violated promises to protect user privacy. The FTC has demanded that Twitter turn over owner Mr. Musk’s personal communications and explain high-profile business decisions, The Journal reported last month.
The subpoena is the latest instance of Mr. Jordan targeting law-enforcement agencies he accuses of abusing authority. He has also subpoenaed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and demanded documents from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which recently filed charges against former President
Donald Trump.
The latter move provoked a countersuit this week accusing Mr. Jordan of seeking sensitive information and interfering with a criminal prosecution.
Democrats have accused Mr. Jordan of using the committee’s powers to do favors for political allies—a category in which they place Mr. Musk, who has won Republicans’ praise for reversing Twitter’s ban of Mr. Trump’s account and other controversial decisions. Mr. Jordan has said he is responding to what he says is the “weaponization” of federal agencies by Democrats.
“The FTC has extraordinarily serious concerns about Twitter’s handling of consumers’ data,” said Rep.
Stacey Plaskett,
a nonvoting Democratic delegate to Congress from the U.S. Virgin Islands, at a judiciary committee hearing on Twitter last month. “There’s something going on between congressional Republicans and Elon Musk.”
The FTC probe could pose a risk for Twitter as Mr. Musk seeks to bring it to profitability. The 2022 consent order came with a $150 million fine and requires the company to jump through a series of legal hoops when it launches new products and features—or face potentially more serious penalties.
Ms. Khan did respond to one of Mr. Jordan’s demands: His request for an explanation of why the FTC asked Twitter about its interactions with journalists.
Starting last year, Twitter granted a handful of journalists access to internal Twitter records, an effort dubbed the “Twitter Files.”
An FTC letter to Twitter on Dec. 13 listed the names of four journalists publicly known to have reported on the files and asked Twitter to identify all journalists granted access, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the House committee and viewed by the Journal.
The same letter also asked Twitter to describe what information journalists were given, whether the journalists were background-checked, and what steps the company took to ensure they didn’t gain unauthorized access to sensitive user data.
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Mr. Jordan, in his March 10 letter to the FTC, said the Twitter investigation doesn’t “justify infringing on the First Amendment” and its protection of press freedom.
Ms. Khan, in her written response, said the FTC was concerned about the exposure of Twitter users’ personal data when it learned that journalists had been given extensive access to company records.
“Since the threat to Twitter users’ privacy and security can arise any time anyone outside of Twitter is accessing users’ personal information, there is no journalist exemption to the FTC’s order,” Ms. Khan said.
Matt Taibbi,
an independent journalist given access to the Twitter records, testified before the House panel last month that the group “did not have access to personal information of any kind.”
Write to Ryan Tracy at [email protected]
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