Elon Musk tries again to escape FTC audits of X data handling

埃隆·马斯克再次尝试摆脱联邦贸易委员会（FTC）对 X 数据处理的审计

Critics hope to keep Elon Musk from escaping a strict data-privacy order imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shortly before he took over Twitter. The FTC order placed restrictions on X’s data use for 20 years, while requiring regular independent audits and granting the agency authority to request documents as needed to ensure compliance. 批评人士希望阻止埃隆·马斯克摆脱联邦贸易委员会（FTC）在他接管 Twitter 前不久施加的一项严格的数据隐私令。该 FTC 命令对 X 的数据使用施加了为期 20 年的限制，要求进行定期的独立审计，并授权该机构在必要时调取文件以确保合规。

The FTC’s action came after Twitter voluntarily disclosed that between May 2013 and September 2019, a coding error accidentally allowed phone numbers and email addresses that users shared for two-factor authentication purposes to be used for targeted advertising aimed at those same users. In a settlement that came just months before Musk’s 2022 takeover, Twitter agreed to pay $150 million and to allow the FTC to monitor the platform’s data-handling practices until 2042 in order to protect user privacy. FTC 此举源于 Twitter 主动披露的一件事：在 2013 年 5 月至 2019 年 9 月期间，一个编码错误导致用户为双重身份验证而提供的电话号码和电子邮件地址，被意外用于针对这些用户的定向广告。在马斯克 2022 年接管公司前几个月达成的一项和解协议中，Twitter 同意支付 1.5 亿美元，并允许 FTC 监督该平台的数据处理行为直至 2042 年，以保护用户隐私。

Musk tried and failed to get the order revoked in 2023. At that time, Musk accused the FTC of aggressively increasing the number of investigative demands. He claimed that the order was improper and should be terminated because the agency was “tainted by bias.” In response, the FTC pointed out that Musk’s takeover of Twitter raised genuine questions about the company’s ability to comply with the order, particularly after he terminated key staff who for years had ensured compliance. 马斯克曾在 2023 年试图撤销该命令，但以失败告终。当时，马斯克指责 FTC 激进地增加了调查需求。他声称该命令是不正当的，应该被终止，因为该机构“受到偏见的玷污”。对此，FTC 指出，马斯克对 Twitter 的收购引发了关于该公司是否有能力遵守该命令的真正质疑，特别是在他解雇了多年来确保合规的关键员工之后。

One engineer confirmed in a deposition that layoffs and other “cost-cutting pressure and decisions” impaired X’s ability to “put technical restrictions and controls in place… around the company’s use of contact data to make sure that it was being used… for the purpose that the particular contact data was collected,” the agency’s filing said. “No one was responsible for about 37 percent of X Corp.’s privacy program controls,” the FTC argued. 该机构的文件显示，一名工程师在证词中证实，裁员和其他“削减成本的压力与决策”削弱了 X“在公司使用联系人数据方面实施技术限制和控制的能力，以确保其仅用于收集该特定联系人数据的目的”。FTC 辩称：“X 公司约 37% 的隐私项目控制措施处于无人负责的状态。”

Also raising red flags for the FCC were Musk’s demands that journalists get access to internal systems for the “Twitter Files” as well as a text from Musk insisting that an executive assistant gain access to systems “immediately,” threatening that “anybody standing in the way” would “be fired.” In 2024, the agency claimed that X security staff sometimes had to pointedly disobey Musk in order to remain in compliance. As Twitter’s functionality became spotty through steep layoffs, the FTC argued that it had “every reason to seek information about whether these developments signaled a lapse in X Corp.’s compliance.” 同样引起 FTC（注：原文此处为 FCC，应为笔误，此处译为 FTC）警觉的还有马斯克要求记者访问内部系统以获取“推特文件”（Twitter Files），以及马斯克发短信坚持要求一名行政助理“立即”获得系统访问权限，并威胁称“任何阻碍的人”都将被“解雇”。2024 年，该机构声称，X 的安全人员有时不得不明确违抗马斯克的命令，以保持合规。随着大规模裁员导致 Twitter 功能变得不稳定，FTC 认为他们“完全有理由寻求信息，以确认这些事态发展是否预示着 X 公司出现了合规漏洞”。

Musk lost his previous lawsuit after the court found it had no authority to amend or end the FTC’s order. Musk is trying again with new arguments, complaining in a May petition to the FTC that they should set aside the order “without delay.” According to Musk, the FTC should stop its monitoring because Twitter no longer exists, as X was merged into xAI, and then xAI was folded into SpaceX. 马斯克之前的诉讼败诉，因为法院认定其无权修改或终止 FTC 的命令。马斯克正带着新的论点再次尝试，他在 5 月份向 FTC 提交的请愿书中抱怨称，他们应该“立即”撤销该命令。马斯克认为，FTC 应该停止监督，因为 Twitter 已不复存在——X 已并入 xAI，随后 xAI 又并入了 SpaceX。

Musk also argues that since none of the leadership or engineers responsible for the two-factor authentication error remain at the company, and “X has since built a world-class privacy and data-protection program” that protects consumers, the FTC doesn’t have to intervene anymore. The company further argued that it has paid $17 million in “needless costs,” since a lawsuit over the same two-factor authentication issue ended with a verdict in Twitter’s favor. 马斯克还辩称，由于导致双重身份验证错误的相关领导层和工程师已不在公司，且“X 此后建立了保护消费者的世界级隐私和数据保护计划”，FTC 无需再进行干预。该公司进一步辩称，他们已经支付了 1700 万美元的“不必要成本”，因为此前针对同一双重身份验证问题的诉讼最终以 Twitter 胜诉告终。

If a court found that Twitter’s privacy policy adequately informed users that their contact info might be used for ad targeting, then the FTC should not be able to continue punishing X for that behavior, Musk argued. “The factual foundation of the FTC’s complaint has been dismantled,” X says. “And the Order’s staggering costs—imposed on both the Company and on the Commission itself are unjustifiable.” 马斯克认为，如果法院认定 Twitter 的隐私政策已充分告知用户其联系信息可能被用于广告定位，那么 FTC 就不应继续因该行为惩罚 X。“FTC 投诉的事实基础已被拆解，”X 表示，“而且该命令给公司和委员会本身带来的惊人成本是无法辩解的。”

As X sees it, the order also requires the company to duplicate compliance efforts, because X already must take extra precautions with data to comply with laws such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Finally, X raised two other claims to justify tossing the order. First, X claimed that allowing the FTC to maintain the order would chill speech on X, because it supposedly “creates a permanent mechanism through which future regulators can pressure the Company over the viewpoints it hosts.” 在 X 看来，该命令还要求公司重复合规工作，因为 X 已经必须采取额外的预防措施来遵守欧盟《通用数据保护条例》（GDPR）等法律。最后，X 提出了另外两项理由来证明废除该命令的合理性。首先，X 声称允许 FTC 维持该命令会抑制 X 上的言论，因为它据称“创造了一种永久性的机制，未来的监管机构可以通过该机制就公司托管的观点向其施压”。

And second, X argued that Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan requires government agencies to drop orders such as this one. Since X is “at the center of a family of companies—including xAI—that are at the forefront of America’s AI ambitions,” the FTC risks running afoul of Trump’s decree to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, if the agency’s order keeps on diverting X “engineering resources from innovation to compliance paperwork,” the petition says. Musk wants the order either dropped immediately or by the end of this year, as he says X will face another year of compliance costs. 其次，X 辩称唐纳德·特朗普的“人工智能行动计划”要求政府机构放弃此类命令。请愿书称，由于 X 处于“包括 xAI 在内的一系列处于美国人工智能雄心前沿的公司中心”，如果 FTC 的命令继续将 X 的“工程资源从创新转移到合规文书工作上”，那么该机构就有违背特朗普消除不必要官僚主义法令的风险。马斯克希望该命令要么立即撤销，要么在今年年底前撤销，因为他表示 X 将面临又一年的合规成本。

First commenters agree: Deny X’s petition

首批评论者一致认为：拒绝 X 的请愿

On Wednesday, the FTC posted an update, seeking public comments on X’s petition to end the strict data privacy monitoring. Stakeholders have until July 2 to weigh in here, after which the agency will make its determination. Only a little more than a dozen comments have been submitted so far, the majority anonymously urging the FTC to deny X’s petition. 周三，FTC 发布了最新消息，就 X 提出的结束严格数据隐私监控的请愿书征求公众意见。利益相关者可在 7 月 2 日前在此发表意见，之后该机构将做出决定。目前仅提交了十几条评论，其中大多数匿名评论敦促 FTC 拒绝 X 的请愿。

Mostly, commenters agreed that Musk should be stuck complying with the order. They suggested that he knew about the order before purchasing Twitter and that the compliance costs he references are proportionate to the scale of the violation, particularly considering X’s one-time $44 billion valuation. Seemingly poking fun at Musk’s failed attempt to back out of buying Twitter, one joked, “buyer beware.” Another trolled Musk by suggesting that he find the $17 million for next year’s compliance costs by cueing up some DOGE-like cuts to save X money. Some commenters suggested that rather than dismiss the order, the agency should intensify its efforts to probe X’s current data handling. 大多数评论者认为马斯克应该继续遵守该命令。他们指出，他在收购 Twitter 之前就知道该命令的存在，而且他提到的合规成本与违规规模相称，特别是考虑到 X 曾经 440 亿美元的估值。有人似乎在嘲笑马斯克试图退出收购 Twitter 的失败尝试，开玩笑说“买家自负”。另一个人则调侃马斯克，建议他通过进行一些类似“DOGE”（政府效率部）式的裁员来节省资金，从而筹集明年 1700 万美元的合规成本。一些评论者建议，该机构不仅不应撤销该命令，反而应该加大力度调查 X 目前的数据处理情况。