Lea Kissner, a senior security official for Twitter, resigned on Thursday as the platform’s redesign under new owner Elon Musk saw a surge in fake accounts, prompting an unusual warning from US regulators.
“I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter,” tweeted chief security officer Lea Kissner, who reportedly stepped down with other key privacy or security executives.
The protests took place the day after Musk’s erratic rollout of brand-new features following his $44 million acquisition of the important one-to-many messaging app.
It announced its eagerly anticipated Twitter Blue membership service, which enables users to pay $7.99 per month for a blue tick and a separate gray “official” badge for a select number of high-profile accounts.
Musk, however, came under fire when he abruptly abandoned the new gray label, overshadowing the debut of the pay service, which is now
As a result of the introduction, a rush of bogus accounts started to appear as people tried to imitate politicians and celebrities including NBA star Lebron James and former British prime minister Tony Blair.
The upheaval prompted a rare warning from the US agency that regulates consumer safety, the Federal Trade Commission, which has been keeping an eye on Twitter due to past security and privacy breaches.
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” a spokesperson for the FTC said in a statement.
“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,” the spokesperson added, referring to past commitments by Twitter to obey US privacy rules.
Ten days after purchasing the business and taking sole ownership of it, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX sacked half of the 7,500 people working for the California-based company.
Musk addressed his remaining staff on Thursday for the first time since the layoffs and pleaded with them to help the website surpass one billion subscribers. Additionally, he made the announcement that he was terminating
“If you don’t show up at the office, resignation accepted,” he reportedly told employees.