A hacker claims to have private details linked to more than 400 million Twitter accounts.
The hacker, who is known as Ryushi, is requesting $200 000 (about R3.4 million) in return for the data. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) plans to launch an investigation into the hack.
The DPC has announced that it will examine Twitter’s “compliance with data-protection law in relation to that security issue”.
The data breach is said to include phone numbers and emails of some high-profile public figures, including celebrities and American Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The micro-blogging platform – which was acquired by businessman Elon Musk for $44 billion last year – has so far refused to comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, Twitter recently banned its users from being able to link to Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon.
The micro-blogging platform confirmed that it will “no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter”.
The company added: “Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or user names for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”
Despite this, Twitter insisted that it will continue to allow people to “cross-post content from any social media platform”.
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