Elon Musk still earns points for trial

(Boursier.com) — There are many twists and turns as the trial between Twitter and Elon Musk approaches, which is due to start in October. And the richest man in the world has still gained points in recent hours. Twitter allegedly misled federal regulators over its security defenses and fake accounts, according to whistleblower Peiter Zatko, who is also the social network’s former chief security officer.

Twitter executives don’t have the resources to fully understand the true number of bots on the platform and weren’t motivated to do so, Peiter Zatko said, as quoted by CNN and the ‘Washington Post’. He would have filed a complaint last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the American stock market policeman, but also with the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission. In January, Twitter announced that this famous hacker, better known as “Mudge”, was no longer its chief security officer, two years after being appointed to this position.

Elon Musk finally threw in the towel in July, giving up the takeover of Twitter for 44 billion dollars. He accuses the group of having breached its contractual obligations by providing in particular erroneous or incomplete data on the number of fake accounts, which Twitter has always denied.

Musk keeps the pressure on

For his part, Elon Musk is locking his defense in anticipation of the trial, which will take place in Delaware, from October 17, and should last five days. The billionaire has given former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey (who is also a longtime friend) an injunction to provide documents as part of the legal battle that will oppose them. Jack Dorsey, who resigned from his position as general manager of Twitter last year, had pushed hard for Musk’s candidacy in this takeover, notably considering in a tweet in April that the one who is also the boss of Tesla and SpaceX was “the only solution I trust” to take over.

The injunction sent by Elon Musk concerns all documents and data proving that Twitter has underestimated the share of spam and bots among its users since the year 2019, and which would be in the possession of Jack Dorsey. Since the lawsuit was announced, dozens of people, banks and funds have been subpoenaed by both parties for the legal battle.