On May 30, 2022, Twitter faced a significant blow after being fined $150 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) for misusing user data.
The fine was a result of Twitter collecting email addresses and phone numbers from users for security purposes, but then using the information to target them with advertisements without their consent.
According to the FTC, this practice affected over 140 million users and boosted Twitter's primary source of revenue.
FTC chair, Lina Khan, observed that Twitter obtained user data under the pretext of security purposes but ended up using it for advertising.
Between May 2013 and September 2019, Twitter exploited user information provided for two-factor authentication to allow advertisers to target specific groups of users.
