How Twitter’s whistleblower could boost Elon Musk’s legal battle
New whistleblower allegations of widespread security threats and spam concerns at Twitter may give Elon Musk ammunition in his fight to back out of a deal to buy the company.
On Tuesday, an 84-page complaint written by Twitter’s former security chief turned whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, alleged that Twitter prioritizes user growth over reducing spam, did not have a plan in place for major security issues, and that half the company’s servers were running out-of-date and vulnerable software.
The accusations come as the social media company battles Musk in court after he attempted to pull out of a $44bn deal to buy the company. In his decision to back out, Musk cited Twitter’s failure to provide details about the prevalence of bot and spam accounts, making the timing of Tuesday’s revelations “amazing” for his case, said Anat Alon-Beck, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
“It’s almost like a script from the movies – this is very convenient for Musk,” she said. Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said on Tuesday that a subpoena had been issued to Zatko for additional information.
Alon-Beck said it’s not clear how Musk’s legal team will use the new developments in the case. In order to walk away from the deal with Twitter without paying a $1bn termination fee, Musk has to prove a “material adverse effect”: a clause that requires proving an event significantly reduces the long-term value of an acquisition.
Until now, Musk has relied on accusations that Twitter fraudulently misrepresented the true number of spam and bot accounts on its social media platform, which the company has estimated in corporate filings make up just 5% of accounts. Musk said he relied on those filings when
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