Based on recent announcements, Twitter faces lawsuit for violating users’ intimacy. The social network has been accused of secretly reading and altering its users’ direct messages in an attempt to gain more money.
Twitter, like Google, is facing a legal trial as a result of the control it exercises on the private messages of users. The lawsuit was filed by Wilford Raney on behalf of all online users, whose intimacy has been violated by Twitter. This means the social network may be forced to pay $100 per day to every American citizen who has used Twitter to send or receive direct messages.
Raney claims he has noticed that Twitter was secretly reading users’ private messages after closely analyzing the structure of the embedded links. According to his declaration, Twitter reads, scans and modifies the content of all Direct Messages to increase their revenue.
Thus, the links that are added to messages do not direct the user to the official website, but rather to Twitter’s analytics. This allows the social network to gather information on its users related to their online habits, the websites and products they like. Third-party companies may even pay Twitter to receive additional analytics data on their customers.
Users were not pleased to hear that Twitter has been secretly eavesdropping on their conversations. This is all the more surprising considering that the company portrayed itself as a fervid defender of its users’ rights.
The company has introduced new security features allowing customers to defend themselves against possible acts of gender or racial discrimination. In addition, the 140-character limit has been eliminated to give users the possibility to freely express themselves. Yet, all these were just meretricious actions; in fact, Twitter was the first to violate users’ rights.
Twitter has responded to users’ allegations claiming that all accusations are “meritless”. Edelson PC, the company that will represent plaintiffs in the lawsuit claims Twitter should be held liable for the damages it has brought to users. In their opinion, is not just the eavesdropping act that is condemnable, but also the decision to deliberately misinform users on their practices.
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