Lawsuits

Musk Subpoenas Twitter Whistleblower

AUG 29 2022·Updated AUG 30 2022

Story

Image credit: Getty Images [via The New York Times]

The Facts

On Mon., Elon Musk's lawyers issued a subpoena to Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko as part of an effort to back out of the $44B deal to purchase the social media company.
nytimes
Zatko recently made a complaint to regulatory agencies and the Justice Dept. accusing Twitter of misleading the public and Musk about its security practices, an accusation Twitter executives deny.
nytimes
Twitter is suing Musk to enforce the agreed-upon purchase, with Musk countersuing and claiming the company wasn't forthcoming about spam account data. The two parties are set to go to trial on Oct. 17.
New York Post
The subpoena requests that Zatko provide a range of documents and communications, including information on bots and spam accounts, which the former security chief says Twitter intentionally undercounts.
Forbes
Zatko and Musk's accusations against Twitter differ in that Musk claims Twitter's public revelations about the number of fake accounts are misleading, while Zatko accuses Twitter of years of "material misrepresentation and omissions" about security and privacy protections.
nytimes
This is one of several recent court filings from Musk's legal team, including subpoenas of the former head of consumer products at Twitter, Kayvon Beykpour, former revenue product lead, Bruce Falck, and former CEO Jack Dorsey.
New York Post

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

This could be the breakthrough Musk needs to make a more legitimate exit from this deal. Although his claims about bots are weak, revelations about data privacy violations could have a better chance of convincing a judge he has a right to terminate his agreement with Twitter.

Quartz

Narrative B

This might not help Musk as much as he hopes: with the trial coming up quickly, the court may be hesitant to allow him to include these allegations in his case, and Musk would have to meet a higher standard of proving fraud in a federal court.