Elon Musk has subpoenaed Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko to get paperwork about the company’s spam and alleged security flaws, in addition to how it quantifies spam accounts, as the billionaire fights to stop the deal to buy Twitter for US$44 billion.
Twitter’s former chief security officer, Peiter Zatko, had previously filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that Twitter misled federal regulators about safeguards against hackers and spam accounts.
Ann Lipton, a professor at Tulane University Law School, says the details Musk receives from Zatko could allow him to bring new fraud charges to his lawsuit. Given the short timeline of the case and Musk’s failure to conduct proper research before the deal is finalized, it is uncertain whether the judge will allow Musk to make those claims.
On October 17, the two parties will begin a five-day trial. Musk wants to pull out of the deal, and Twitter wants him to buy the company at the agreed price of US$54.20 per share because they have always insisted that the spam counts were just estimates, not binding representations.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.