Comment from Anonymous

The FTC should grant X Corp.‘s petition and get rid of—or at least sharply cut back—this overreaching 2022 consent order. It’s time to drop the heavy burden on a company that’s completely changed hands and cleaned up its act. Look, the original problems happened under the old Twitter crowd. They misused contact info that people gave them for security purposes, and there were some security lapses. Fine—they paid a big price, over $150 million plus all the audits and reporting. But that was then. Every key person responsible is long gone. Elon Musk bought the company, new management, new direction, new focus on actually protecting data and building a better platform. Holding the new X to a 20-year punishment for the old regime’s mistakes just doesn’t make sense. It’s like fining the new owner of a business forever because the previous guy messed up. Regulations should fix problems, not create endless paperwork. X says they’re spending close to $17 million just on compliance busywork. That’s real money that could go into better security, new features, or fighting actual threats. We’ve got strong state privacy laws now, GDPR overseas, and industry standards that X already follows. The FTC can still step in under regular authority if there’s a real violation. This old order is redundant overkill that hurts more than it helps. On top of that, some of these demands smell like they’re reaching into First Amendment territory. X is a major platform for free speech and public conversation. Broad fishing expeditions into content decisions and internal policies don’t belong in a privacy settlement. We need to protect real consumer data without letting regulators pressure platforms on what speech they allow. As a businessman who’s run my own firm for years, I know what heavy-handed rules do—they drain resources, slow down innovation, and make it harder to compete. X is right in the middle of public discourse, news, and now AI advancements. Tying them down with legacy audits from a different company hurts American tech leadership at a time when we’re up against tough global competition. Consumers win when companies can move fast and build better products, not when they’re stuck filling out forms for regulators. People might say “you can’t trust them.” Fair enough—hold everyone accountable under the law. But don’t assume guilt forever just because of who used to own it. Market forces, user choices, competition, and the FTC’s normal enforcement powers are plenty. If X slips up, go after them then. Don’t punish success and change with endless oversight. This isn’t about weakening privacy protections. It’s about common sense, proportionality, and letting a transformed company move forward without dragging around old baggage. The public comment period is open—now’s the time for the FTC to do the right thing: lift this burden and focus on real harms, not regulatory theater.