Twitter Inc was informed by the FBI of at least one Chinese agent working at the company, US Senator Chuck Grassley said during the Senate hearing on Tuesday where a company whistleblower testified, Reuters has reported.
Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko, a famed hacker who served as Twitter's head of security until his firing in January, said some Twitter employees were concerned the Chinese government would be able to collect data on the company's users, the newswire said.
Zatko's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday revealed that Twitter's security issues could be far more serious than thought, with the allegations for the first time that the company was informed of agents of the Chinese government working at the social media firm.
READ: Twitter shareholders approve Elon Musk's pulled offer; whistleblower gives Senate testimony
While Senator Grassley wondered how Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal would keep his job if the allegations were true, many senators used the testimony to support legislation they had introduced to rein in the market power of Big Tech, with a few calling for immediate direct action against Twitter, Reuters reported.
Shares of Twitter still rose almost 1% on Tuesday, however, despite a sharp market sell-off, after its shareholders voted in favour of billionaire Elon Musk's pulled $44 billion deal to buy the company after a virtual special meeting of stockholders.
The shareholder approval now sets the stage for the battle between Musk and Twitter in the Delaware Courts, though analysts at Wedbush think that there is "the high possibility ... that some form of negotiation likely takes place ahead" of the trial start date on October 17, 2022.
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