Twitter Faces Employee Exodus Amid Reports From Peiter "Mudge" Zatko

Twitter's chief executive, Parag Agrawal, dismissed the Zatko report as rubbish. (photo: twitter @paraga )

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc is now facing more employee exodus. This is known from the company's executive statement to staff on Wednesday, August 24. This comes as leaders seek to overcome a range of challenges, including whistleblower allegations and a legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk.

The reduction of employees on Twitter currently stands at 18.3%. This was said by a Twitter executive to staff during a meeting involving employees across the company, in audio heard by Reuters.

"Months of chaos surrounding the planned acquisition of Musk has led to several staff fleeing," the employee, who asked not to be identified told Reuters.

The staff meeting was held a day after former Twitter security chief Peiter "Mudge" Zatko reported to the US Senate that the social media company misled federal regulators about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts.

The San Francisco-based company is also headed to court in October after suing Musk for trying to walk away from the purchase agreement.

Twitter's Chief Executive, Parag Agrawal, assured employees on Wednesday, August 24 that Zatko's allegations were "fundamentally, technically and historically inaccurate."

“Before the news spread, Twitter was reaching out to "agencies" globally, said General Counsel Sean Edgett. "We have never made any material misrepresentation to regulators, to our board, to any of you."

During the meeting, Twitter staff asked company leaders whether Twitter would hire or promote more junior staff members and how Twitter could be expected to achieve its growth targets given the ongoing employee exodus.

"The only way for us to convey that is by narrowing our focus to fewer things and so that it is proportionate to the number of people here," Agrawal answered on the question.

Jay Sullivan, Twitter's general manager for consumer products and revenue, provided preliminary details of a new project to consider ways to allow users more control over the content they see on Twitter.

"The idea of giving users more control to help shape Twitter's work on content moderation, but this new project will incorporate the philosophy into the product roadmap," Sullivan said.

Twitter itself did not respond to a request for further comment on the Reuters report.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee said last Wednesday that it would hold a hearing with Zatko on September 13, the same day Twitter shareholders will vote on whether to approve the deal with Musk.

Also on Wednesday, attorneys for Twitter and Musk will attend a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, to decide whether Twitter should provide the documents and data Musk is seeking to challenge the company's estimates of spam accounts on its platform. Musk's lawyers also briefly mentioned Zatko's allegations.

"Mr Zatko said management has no interest in measuring bots," Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, told the judge.

The judge said at the end of Wednesday's hearing he would consider the arguments before issuing a decision on the charges.