Elon Musk has summoned a Twitter whistleblower to court against his lawsuit to withdraw a $44 billion deal in October.
Musk asked whistleblower Peter Zacco for information on how Twitter measures spam accounts, according to court documents filed Monday.
This includes documents and communications about the company’s spam and alleged security vulnerabilities, as well as the company’s compliance with the 2011 Federal Trade Commission Settlement and “Twitter’s involvement in illegal activity.”
The world’s richest man said he would back out of his firm’s deal after Twitter misled him and regulators about the actual amount of spam or bot accounts on its microblogging platform.
Last week, Twitter’s former chief security officer, Peter ‘Majma’ Zatko, claimed in a whistleblower complaint that the social media company misled federal regulators about its protections against hackers and spam accounts.
This information could be valuable to Musk, who is embroiled in a legal battle over the termination of the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, for the same reason as the number of spam bots.
Musk accused Twitter of withholding information about how it calculates the percentage of bots on its service. The trial is scheduled for October 17.
According to Tulane University School of Law professor Anne Lipton, the information Musk gets from Zatko could be the basis for the Tesla CEO to bring new fraud allegations in his legal battle with Twitter.
However, he questioned whether the judge in the Twitter lawsuit would allow Musk to bring those claims due to the lawsuit’s tight schedule and Musk’s refusal to perform due diligence before signing the settlement agreement, he said was unknown.
A lawyer for Twitter told a court hearing last week that Musk’s focus on spam as a way to get out of a deal to buy the company was “legally inappropriate.”
Both sides have sued each other and a five-day trial is scheduled for October 17.
Musk wants to cancel the deal, but Twitter wants a court order to buy the company for the agreed $54.20 per share.
Source: Metro
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a vast amount of experience in covering health news. I am also an author at News Bulletin 247. I am highly experienced and knowledgeable in this field. I am a hard worker and always deliver quality work. I am a reliable source of information and always provide accurate information.
