Elon Musk Asks Twitter To Submit Names Of Responsible Employees To Bots And Spam Accounts

Elon Musk asks Twitter to hand over names of employees who know about bot and spam accounts. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Elon Musk's legal team is demanding that Twitter Inc hand over the names of the employees who are responsible for calculating what percentage of social media site users are bot and spam accounts.

That's because bots and spam accounts on Twitter have become a central issue in the legal battle over whether Musk, who is Tesla's chief executive, should complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.

Musk said last month that he was ending the deal because Twitter had withheld information about these bot and spam accounts. Instead, Twitter sued Musk to finalize the deal, saying the issue had nothing to do with their deal with Musk.

Twitter and Musk are in the lawsuit discovery phase and are gearing up for a trial scheduled to begin on October 17 in Delaware. Both sides have issued subpoenas to banks and advisors as they try to gather evidence.

The process also includes agreeing to "custodians", or people who have control over the relevant information.

In a letter filed under seal on Tuesday, August 9, Musk's lawyer asked the judge overseeing the case to force Twitter to hand over the names of the employees so the defense team can question them, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Twitter and Musk's lawyers declined to comment on this report. Twitter previously said it was working together to share relevant information with Musk to finalize the deal.