Twitter security leaker Peiter Zatko has been served with a subpoena by Elon Musk, who wants to know more about Zatko’s assertions regarding Twitter’s bot estimations.
On Monday, Musk’s legal team served the subpoena, in which they asked for a variety of documents concerning Twitter’s projections of the bots.
This was a significant part of Musk’s effort to justify his choice to terminate his purchase of the social platform. Just after Zatko’s leak report caused a stir on Capitol Hill and in the IT sector, the subpoena was issued to compel him to testify.
Attorneys for Elon Musk issued a subpoena to Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko as part of the company’s ongoing lawsuit against the Tesla CEO, according to court filings. https://t.co/s64aGB64MW
— Forbes (@Forbes) August 29, 2022
Business Model and Inadequacies
Musk’s legal team demanded Zatko provide them with a count of records concerning Twitter’s business model.
These documents include records concerning the impact that spam had on Twitter’s business, as well as the “key metric” of the company, which is known as “monetizable daily active users.”
Per the subpoena, the court will also examine any papers relating to the termination of Zatko’s employment, as well as any records related to the alleged illegal action that Twitter engaged in.
A retired security chief at Twitter lodged a leaker complaint against the corporation, alleging Twitter has severe, outrageous inadequacies in its security procedures and failed to take adequate measures to protect its users.
The complaint was lodged against the company last month. He claimed the business had been unable to offer the latest features to its servers and executives in charge of security concealed pertinent information from Twitter’s board of directors.
In addition to this, Zatko asserted Indian authorities instructed Twitter to hire a government agent to work within the company’s offices.
Former Twitter executive Peiter Zatko — also known by his hacker handle "Mudge" — received a subpoena Saturday from Musk's team, according to Zatko's lawyer and court records. https://t.co/Yq9SSbiFiv
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 29, 2022
It is now planned that Zatko will testify in front of Congress on September 13.
The Initial Deal and Inaccurate Figures
An expedited trial regarding Twitter’s lawsuit regarding Musk’s dismissal of the deal is scheduled to take place from October 17 through October 21.
This trial will involve the legal teams representing both Twitter and Musk. Both sides issued many subpoenas in an effort to obtain information concerning Twitter’s policies and Musk’s future endeavors.
Twitter issued subpoenas to numerous individuals associated with Musk in order to obtain documentation relating to the funding of Musk’s proposed $44 billion acquisition of the firm.
Musk personally served a subpoena on Jack Dorsey, the previous CEO of Twitter, in order to obtain details regarding his time spent working in the company.
The primary focus of Musk’s legal defense has been assembling evidence to demonstrate Twitter was dishonest regarding the percentage of its user base that it classifies as bots.
On August 15, a judge from the Delaware Chancery Court issued a ruling that stated Musk was only allowed to interview one of the 22 Twitter employees participating in the trial or verify the number of bots that were using the network.
Musk’s proposal to access all of Twitter’s data regarding spam bots was deemed “overly broad” by the judge presiding over the trial between Musk and Twitter.
However, the judge ruled Musk could access data linked to an audit of approximately 9,000 accounts in the final quarter of 2022.
This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.
