Nov. 18, 2022: Dems want answers from Musk’s Twitter

On Thursday, as the 5 p.m. deadline approached for employees to decide whether they were “hardcore” enough to stick it out at Elon Musk's Twitter, reports started to trickle out that Musk’s ultimatum had backfired spectacularly. The second big development was that six Democratic senators wrote to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to investigate whether Musk broke the law.  “We write regarding Twitter’s serious, willful disregard for the safety and security of its users, and encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate any breach of Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws,” the senators wrote. Tech reporter Rebecca Kern stops by the recap the latest in Twitter world and whether the platform is headed to the blue checkmark in the sky.  Fortune Magazine’s Kylie Robison said up to 75% of Musk’s employees had decided to abandon the company. The Verge reported that “given the scale of the resignations this week, they expect the platform to start breaking soon,” adding: “[T]he team that maintains Twitter’s core system libraries that every engineer at the company uses is gone after Thursday. ‘You cannot run Twitter without this team,’ the employee said.”  Twitter’s offices were closed until Monday, and reports suggested Musk was paranoid that departing employees might try to sabotage the company. Insider’s Kali Hays reported “that the entirety of Twitter’s payroll department has resigned/not elected to sign up for Elon’s Twitter 2.0.” The Times reported that Musk frantically tried to retain top talent in hastily arranged Zooms. “As the 5 p.m. deadline passed, some who had called in began hanging up, seemingly having decided to leave, even as Mr. Musk continued speaking,” according to NYT’s Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac and David McCabe. The second big development in Twitter world was that six Democratic senators wrote to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to investigate whether Musk broke the law.  “We write regarding Twitter’s serious, willful disregard for the safety and security of its users, and encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate any breach of Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws,” the senators wrote. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter Raghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.