Agencies-Gaza post
New battle between Twitter & Musk
The former Twitter official said the company misled federal regulators about the security risks facing the social media giant, which could support Elon Musk’s bid to avoid buying the company for $44 billion.
The legal confrontation between Musk and Twitter has so far focused mainly on allegations that the company misled the billionaire about the number of spam accounts on its social networking platform.
Peter Zatko, the former head of security at Twitter, highlights new areas that Musk will focus on in his legal battle, such as allegations that Twitter has failed to disclose weaknesses in its security and data privacy.
Anne Lipton, a professor at Tulane Law School, said the ex-Twitter official’s revelations provide a “different basis for fraud.”
It is not yet clear whether and how Musk’s team will use Zatko’s information, although Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said on Tuesday that a request had been made to the court for Zatko to be summoned over what he said.
“We found his departure and other key employees to be intriguing as to what is happening within the company,” Spiro said in a statement.
Twitter’s stock was down 5.9 percent in late trading at $40.44 per share.
Musk, the world’s richest person and CEO of electric car maker Tesla, told Twitter in July that he would acquire the company for $54.20 per share, but accused Twitter of not disclosing the true number of spam accounts on its social media platform, which the company estimate by five percent in the company’s disclosures. Musk said he relied on those disclosures when he offered to buy the company.
Since then, Twitter and Musk have exchanged lawsuits, as Twitter asked a judge in a Delaware court to order Musk to complete the deal. The trial is scheduled to begin on October 17.
Zatko said in his complaint that Twitter falsely told regulators that it had a robust security plan in place.
He added that he had alerted colleagues to the fact that half of the company’s servers were using outdated and invalid software, according to a redacted version of his complaint.
Legal experts said that allegations of Twitter’s failure to disclose security and privacy risks may be easier for Musk to substantiate than allegations that the company miscalculated the number of spam accounts.
