The FTC is demanding Elon Musk provide names and information of people who received private company files.
The Hill reports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has told Twitter to provide internal communications, including those regarding CEO Elon Musk, as well as the names of journalists that Twitter has provided internal records to as part of the agency’s investigation into it, House Republicans said Tuesday.
The FTC Initially opened an investigation into Twitter immediatley following Elon’s purchase of the social media company.
In an interim staff report on the FTC’s interactions with Twitter, the House Judiciary Committee and its subcommittee probing the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” charged the agency with “harassment.”
According to the Republican-controlled subcommittee, the FTC’s “timing, scope, and frequency” suggest partisan motivations.
In the house republican report it stated “There is no logical reason, for example, why the FTC needs to know the identities of journalists engaging with Twitter, There is no logical reason why the FTC, on the basis of user privacy, needs to analyze all of Twitter’s personnel decisions. And there is no logical reason why the FTC needs every single internal Twitter communication about Elon Musk.”
Elon Musk is under attack in another business venture of his, one that is trying to save peoples lives.
Reuters reports, Elon Musk has predicted that his medical device company, Neuralink, would begin human trials of a revolutionary brain implant to treat paralysis and blindness at least four times since 2019.
The company, founded in 2016, didn’t seek FDA approval until early 2022 – and the agency rejected its application, according to seven current and former employees.
Neuralink is still addressing the agency’s concerns a year after the rejection. A third staffer expressed skepticism that the company could quickly resolve the issues, despite Musk’s latest prediction at a Nov. 30 presentation that the FDA would approve human trials in the spring.
There has been no disclosure of the FDA’s rejection of Neuralink’s trial application or the extent of the agency’s concerns. It is not required to disclose such regulatory interactions to investors since it is a private company. During the hours-long November presentation, Musk said the company had submitted “most of our paperwork” to the agency, without specifying any formal application, and Neuralink officials acknowledged the FDA had asked safety questions in what they referred to as an ongoing conversation.
The overreach of the Federal Trade Commission has been nothing short of staggering. They are engaging in an illegal probe of a private company and asking for personal information, like the names of journalists, which even a conservative would agree encroaches on our constitutional rights of freedom and privacy. How far is the FTC willing to go? Are they so scared to take on real competition that they have become agents of overreaching tyranny? It remains to be seen how much overreach they can get away with before being held accountable by the House Judiciary Committee and its subcommittee–time will tell if we still have any freedoms left within the Constitution or if they’ve all been eroded by overreaching government agencies.
