Last week, a former cybersecurity expert for Twitter, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, released a whistleblower report on the social platform. In his report, Zatko cited various concerns with Twitter’s security, including numerous bot and spam accounts and data vulnerabilities. The release of this report has come at a fortuitous time for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is still working to break out of his deal to acquire Twitter.
As Musk has previously stated concerns with Twitter’s security and viability as an actual product versus how it portrays itself, Musk and his team have alleged that Zatko’s report proves that the site is not what it seems. As such, as Musk has requested several times before, he believes he is entitled to back out of a multi-billion dollar deal because Twitter misrepresented itself during the negotiation phases. Musk’s legal team has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission adding these new concerns to their existing case.
In response to Musk’s filing, Twitter filed its own letter with the SEC this morning, insisting that the whistleblower report was fabricated and that Musk’s attempts to piggyback off of it are merely his latest attempt to back out of their sizable deal.
Elon Musk sent Twitter a letter to terminate his acquisition deal, citing allegations from a whistleblower. https://t.co/3GhlR0NtFR
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 30, 2022
Twitter wrote that Musk’s filing “is based solely on statements made by a third party that, as Twitter has previously stated, are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack important context.”
Musk’s legal team has subpoenaed Zatko to have him appear as part of their upcoming deposition.
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