Twitter has denied that “hundreds” of employees are reading private DMs between users after Project Veritas released undercover video footage of employees saying several hundred of them are paid to review all content on the site, including DMs.
Project Veritas filmmaker James O’Keefe released footage Monday showing Twitter engineer Clay Haynes telling a Project Veritas staff member that “at least three or four hundred people” have access to Twitter users’ private data with seemingly no restrictions.
A Twitter spokesperson responded to the video allegations and denied private messages are routinely reviewed.
“We do not proactively review DMs. Period,” the spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “A limited number of employees have access to such information, for legitimate work purposes, and we enforce strict access protocols for those employees.”
Twitter did not say specifically how many employees had access to DMs or what steps are taken to protect private user data. A former senior Twitter employee told BuzzFeed that DMs are only accessed or read “in response to a report,” such as when one person reports another for harassment through DMs.
The Project Veritas exposé is not the only time Twitter has come under fire for employees having access to customers’ private information. In November, a Twitter employee suspended President Donald Trump’s Twitter account without authorization, inviting questions about whether employees had the ability to suspend or ban users.
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