Twitter has agreed to pay a $150 million settlement over allegations the social media platform misused users’ private information between May 2013 and September 2019, according to reporting by Reuters.

The settlement purportedly encompasses allegations that Twitter misrepresented the “security and privacy” of users’ data and misused the likes of phone numbers to target advertising, according to court documents.

In addition to paying the £150 million settlement, as announced by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the agreement stipulates that Twitter improve its compliance practices.

The complaint read in part: "Specifically, while Twitter represented to users that it collected their telephone numbers and email addresses to secure their accounts, Twitter failed to disclose that it also used user contact information to aid advertisers in reaching their preferred audiences.”

Lina Khan, FTC chair, said: "Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads.

"This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter's primary source of revenue."

Remarking on the fine in a tweet, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, who has recently been linked to purchasing Twitter, said: "If Twitter was not truthful here, what else is not true? This is very concerning news.”

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