Elon Musk’s legal team is requesting to speak with Twitter’s former security chief, a whistleblower who could strengthen Musk’s case for backing out of a $44 billion deal to acquire the social media business.
According to Zatko’s attorney and court papers, former Twitter executive Peiter Zatko — better known by his hacker handle “Mudge” — received a subpoena from Musk’s team on Saturday.
The wealthy CEO of Tesla has argued for months that the company he agreed to acquire undercounted its phony and spam accounts, and that he should be excused from closing the deal. His friend and former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, has also been subpoenaed.
Twitter has filed a lawsuit against Musk in Delaware’s Court of Chancery to compel him to finish the April agreement. The company asserts that Musk has acted in bad faith and is attempting to deliberately scuttle the agreement since market conditions have deteriorated and the acquisition no longer supports his interests.
The allegation in Zatko’s whistleblower complaint to U.S. officials that Twitter deceived regulators about its privacy and security precautions — and its ability to detect and root out false accounts — may play into Musk’s hands in the next Delaware trial slated for Oct. 17.
Zatko was Twitter’s chief of security until early this year, when he was sacked. His complaint alleges that Twitter’s security, privacy, and content moderation methods have “extreme, egregious inadequacies.” In addition, he claims that officials lied to federal regulators about the company’s security plan, which is mandated under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
Former Twitter security chief asserts irresponsible practices 01:41
When the accusation was made public, Twitter refuted his claims, stating that Zatko was terminated “for poor performance and weak leadership.”
“What we’ve observed thus far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security standards, which is filled with inconsistencies and falsehoods and lacks crucial context. Mr. Zatko’s charges and opportunistic timing look calculated to attract attention and cause damage to Twitter, its customers, and its stockholders. Security and privacy have been and will continue to be company-wide objectives at Twitter “The business stated in a statement.
Attorneys for Zatko deemed Twitter’s statement regarding his performance to be inaccurate, citing the fact that he had “repeatedly voiced concerns about Twitter’s extremely insufficient information security protocols to the Company’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors throughout his tenure.”
Irina Ivanova provided reporting assistance.
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