Twitter and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla has been battling over the past few weeks regarding the sale of Twitter. After Elon Musk declined the outright purchase of Twitter, the company took Musk to court. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk complains that Twitter asked him for too much information. He claims that Twitter even wants all the chat content about the acquisition. Furthermore, Musk had initially accused Twitter of attempting to sell bot accounts. According to reports, former Twitter security director Peiter Zatko said that Twitter executives did not have enough resources to fully understand the true number of bot accounts on its platform.
Zatko is a well-known hacker who was named Twitter’s director of security two years ago. In January, Twitter announced that Zatko would be leaving for reasons unknown. The latest reports show that Zatko filed a complaint against Twitter with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last month. He is accusing Twitter of serious vulnerabilities in security protection and spam accounts. This eventually mislead regulators.
Zatko claims Twitter executives did not have the resources to fully understand the true number of bot accounts on the Twitter platform. Also, they have little incentive to know. As we all know, Twitter is currently involved in a legal dispute with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over the issue of bot accounts (spam accounts).
Twitter said in regulatory filings that the number of bot accounts on its platform was less than 5 per cent of the total. However, Musk is skeptical, saying that Twitter could have as high as 20 per cent of fake users. A judge will hear the case on October 17 for five days.
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Twitter claims it fired Zatko for poor performance
As of now, there is no response from either Zatko or Elon Musk regarding this issue. However, a Twitter spokesman said Zatko was fired in January due to poor leadership and poor performance. In a statement to Time, in response to questions about the whistleblower disclosures, the spokesperson said
“…security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and we still have a lot of work ahead of us”. “Mr Zatko was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter for poor performance and ineffective leadership over six months ago. While we haven’t had access to the specific allegations being referenced, what we’ve seen so far is a narrative about our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and lacks important context.”
“Mr. Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey for documents
Elon Musk asked Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey for documents. This is because Musk is in a lawsuit with Twitter, as he wants to scrap the Twitter acquisition plan. Dorsey stepped down as Twitter’s CEO in November and left Twitter’s board in May. Musk had reached an acquisition agreement with Twitter in April. However, Musk asked Dorsey for documents and communications related to the agreement and the fake account.
The subpoena shows that Musk also asked Twitter for mDAU-related documents and communication records. Twitter has considered replacing mDAU with other indicators. Twitter has introduced mDAU when paying executive compensation and setting executive annual goals.
Both Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey agree that algorithms should be more transparent and give users more control. Dorsey believes that the advertising model hinders Twitter’s development. However, Musk wants Twitter to rely more on subscription fees and other services. These services could include money transfer services between users.
Musk had discussed with Dorsey about Musk joining the Twitter board in March before Musk disclosed that he already owned a 9.4% stake in Twitter. Musk accepted the board seat but suddenly changed course before taking office, switching to acquiring Twitter.
