Twitter Engineers Still Can Tweet With Any Account Using ‘GodMode’, Whistleblower Claims

Twitter says it has a new whistleblower because another former employee raised the alarm about security concerns. Washington Post. The new accuser, who has spoken to Congress and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said all Twitter engineers still have access to an internal program previously called “GodMode.”

Whistleblower complaints claim that GodMode (now renamed “privileged mode”) remains on the laptops of any engineer who wants it, requiring only a production computer and a simple code change from “FALSE” to “TRUE”. A screenshot of the code included in the October complaint filed with the FTC displays a “Think before you do this” warning to anyone attempting to use the code.

This isn’t the first time Twitter security has come under scrutiny. In 2020, teenage crypto scammers hacked into companies’ internal systems and sent fake tweets from the accounts of Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Musk, and more. Twitter’s then-executives said it had addressed the issue and launched a “comprehensive information security program reasonably designed to protect the security, privacy, confidentiality and integrity of non-public consumer information.”

However, Twitter’s first whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, disputed this. Other engineers at the time argued that GodMode was still widely available.

According to the new accuser’s filing, the incident prompted Twitter to reopen the case and the discovery that the engineer could delete or reinstate someone else’s tweets. (Even regular Twitter users can’t.) He also claims that Twitter can’t log who is using or abusing special powers.

The new whistleblower complaint was filed by Whistleblower Aid, the same non-profit company that represents Zatko. The FTC is reportedly interviewing former Twitter employees about the allegations.