Twitter whistleblower says Chinese, Indian agents worked for company

Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko said that Indian and Chinese agents were on the company payroll.

In Tuesday testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Twitter's former security chief alleged that "at least one agent" from Chinese intelligence worked for the company while multiple Indian intelligence operatives were on the payroll with the company's knowledge, the Associated Press reported.

Zatko also said the company was misleading the government and public about its security operations and handling of user data.

"Twitter's misleading the public, lawmakers," he said. "They don't know what data they have, where it lives and where it came from and so, unsurprisingly, they can't protect it."

"Twitter leadership ignored its engineers," in part because "their executive incentives led them to prioritize profit over security," he also asserted.

Zatko filed his initial whistleblower complaint in July, alleging the company had significant deficiencies in its hacking prevention system.

Also on Tuesday, company shareholders approved Elon Musk's $44 billion to purchase the company, a deal from which the billionaire seeks to withdraw.