Kim Dotcom threatens Twitter class action over user password exposure

Kim Dotcom has threatened to sue Twitter in a class-action lawsuit after the social network admitted to accidentally storing its users’ passwords after an “internal glitch.”

Twitter urged their 330 million users to change their passwords on Thursday after discovering a “bug,” which stored their users’ unmasked passwords in an internal log for months. They didn’t specify exactly how many accounts had been affected, however, Reuters reported that the figure was “substantial.”

Unconvinced by their ‘honest mistake’ apology, internet entrepreneur Dotcom questioned why Twitter decided to admit to the breach now. He suggested that a threat from a former employee, a pending lawsuit, or an imminent NSA leak could be possible reasons for their forthrightness.

“What we can all agree on is that this wasn’t an ‘error’ or an honest mistake,” wrote Kim.

READ MORE: ‘Change your password!’ Twitter urges 330 million users after ‘internal glitch’

On Twitter, Kim asked his more than 700,000 followers to vote in a poll about whether they would be interested in joining a class-action lawsuit against the social media network for misleading their users “by telling them that their passwords were encrypted while deliberately storing them in plain text and probably providing them unlawfully to US govt agencies?”

Following a resounding ‘Yes’ from more than 6,000 participants – and his estimation that “over a million Twitter users” will feel the same – Kim later appealed for a “reputable US law firm” to step forward to head the class-action lawsuit.

Many users felt similarly skeptical about the “bug” excuse, which prompted Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal to defensively claim that the company “didn’t have to” alert users to their mistake. Agrawal later took back the statement.