What Happened
The Federal Trade Commission said it is seeking public comment on a petition from X Corp., formerly Twitter, asking the agency to set aside or modify its 2022 settlement order with the company.
According to the FTC, X argues the order was imposed on a company that no longer exists, that the people responsible for the underlying failures have left, and that X has built what it calls a world-class privacy and data-protection program.
The FTC says X also argues the order creates needless costs, no longer serves a valid regulatory purpose, implicates First Amendment values, and that setting aside or modifying it is critical to advancing American leadership in artificial intelligence. Public comments are due July 2, 2026.
Why This Matters
The 2022 order came from a privacy case over Twitter's use of account-security data for targeted advertising. Whether the order stays, changes or dies matters because platform privacy promises are only useful when they survive corporate name changes, executive exits and the next shiny business pivot.
There may be real legal arguments inside the petition. But the public-facing summary still lands with a very internet-specific flavor: the company formerly known as Twitter is asking the government to accept that the old Twitter problem belongs to a previous era, like a username nobody can recover.
The Dumb Part With The Rebrand Laundromat
The dumb part is the logic stack. First the company says the old company no longer exists. Then it says the old order is expensive. Then it says the old order might slow the future of AI. That is not a privacy argument so much as a corporate escape room with a chatbot in the corner.
If rebranding could dissolve regulatory baggage, every consent order in America would be one logo refresh away from witness protection.
The Bottom Line
The FTC has not decided the petition; it opened a 30-day comment period and will vote after comments close. The real stupid shit is watching a privacy order become another battlefield in the endless war between "we changed" and "the receipts are still laminated."
Sources
FTC: FTC seeks comment on X Corp. petition to set aside or modify FTC order concerning Twitter
FTC: 2022 Twitter privacy settlement announcement