X Seeks to End FTC Data Security and Privacy Consent Order

Elon Musk’s X has asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to terminate or substantially modify a May 2022 consent order that governs the company’s data security and privacy practices. The FTC has opened a 30-day public comment period on the petition, which would end oversight roughly 16 years early if granted. X argues the order applies to a corporate structure and personnel from the pre-acquisition Twitter era, imposes about $17 million in compliance costs, and diverts engineering resources from artificial intelligence development.

The 2022 order followed FTC findings that Twitter used phone numbers and email addresses collected for multifactor authentication to support personalized advertising, and it extended an earlier 2011 order imposed after two hacking incidents required the company to strengthen cybersecurity controls. X cited a 2024 California court dismissal of related class-action claims as support for its position that the disputed data use was permitted under Twitter’s terms, while acknowledging that a previous attempt to escape the order was rejected by a federal judge in 2023 on procedural or venue grounds.