A new Twitter whistleblower has highlighted a serious ongoing security concern that the social media company claimed it fixed back in 2020.
The former employee claims that current staff still have access to “GodMode,” an internal setting that allows engineers at the company to access and post from any Twitter account, in a warning to members of Congress and the Federal Trade Commission and reported by the Washington Post.
The whistleblower said the function was originally intended so that employees could tweet on behalf of advertisers that weren’t able to do so themselves and, following previous controversy, it was renamed “privileged mode.”
Prior to Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s privacy protections drew heavy criticism in 2020 when a group of teenagers hacked into the systems and tweeted from high-profile, verified accounts including Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Musk himself.
At the time, Twitter said that they repaired glitches and had restricted use of such functions. Now, just more than three months into Musk’s leadership, several former employees who recently left reportedly say security concerns are worse.
“GodMode” is still available to any engineer who requests access or to anyone familiar with the vulnerability, the new whistleblower said. Changes made couldn’t be traced back to the person who used the mode, the whistleblower added.
According to the Post, the former employer demonstrated that someone with access (such as a Twitter...
Shots fired inside the hotel hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner attended by President Donald Trump caused immediate confusion about the suspect and what transpired at the A...