Elon Musk Made Peter Zatko A Witness In A Trial Against Twitter

Peiter Zatko, will be used as a witness against Twitter. (photo: Twitter @mudge)

JAKARTA - Elon Musk has called whistleblower Twitter Inc, Peiter Zatko, to search for documents and communications about spam from the social media company and the alleged security vulnerability. According to a court lawsuit on Monday, August 29, this comes as the billionaire struggles to end his agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

Musk is seeking information from whistleblowerPeiter Zatko, mostly about how Twitter measures spam accounts. Musk said he would abandon the acquisition deal as Twitter misled him and regulators about the true amount of spam or bot accounts on the microblogging platform.

But Musk is also seeking documents and communications on alleged attempts to hide security weaknesses, compliance with the 2011 Federal Trade Commission agreement and " Twitter's involvement in unlawful activities."

Peiter Zatko, who in the hackers world is widely known as "Mudge," recently ended his duties as head of Twitter security earlier this year, and said in a complaint from his whistleblower last week that Twitter had deliberately misclaimed that it had a solid security plan.

According to Ann Lipton, a professor at Tulane University Law School, the information Musk obtained from Zatko may lay the groundwork for Tesla Inc's chief executive to introduce new fraudulent claims in his legal battle with Twitter.

However, he said it was unclear whether the judge in Twitter's litigation would allow Musk to file the claim given the tight schedule for the case and as Musk ignored the due diligence before signing the deal contract.

A Twitter attorney told a court hearing last week that Musk's focus on spam was a way to end his deal to buy the company "illegally irrelevant" as Twitter has always said the amount of spam is just an estimate, not a binding representation.

Both sides have sued each other and are heading to court for five days on October 17th. Musk wanted out of the deal and Twitter asked Chancellor Kathaleen rumick of the Delaware Chancellor's Court to order him to buy the company for an agreed deal of USD 54.20 per share.