Alex Bruno
Elon Musk is on the hunt for data that disproves Twitter’s assertion that spam and fake accounts accounted for less than 5% of mDAUs in the fourth quarter of 2021. The subpoena asks Zatko to provide any records she may have about the measure Twitter employs to calculate mDAUs as well as any information on the platform’s purported spam problems. The timing of Twitter’s sacking of Zatko and other important stuff is also viewed with great suspicion by Musk’s legal team.
Senior Twitter officials, according to allegations made by Zatko last week, allegedly concealed vulnerabilities, deceived the board and authorities, neglected to erase user data, and lacked the resources necessary to carry out thorough audits to tally the number of bot accounts. He goes on to say that in 2021, CEO Parag Agrawal directed him to provide fictitious and fraudulent paperwork. Twitter vigorously refutes the accusations.
Agrawal claimed in a tweet that Twitter is “highly encouraged” to detect and remove spam every day, but Zatko says Agrawal was lying. On the contrary, he argues that Twitter’s head of site integrity said they had no clue how many bogus accounts there are and that executives don’t want to know the precise numbers since doing so would likely damage Twitter’s reputation and share price.
Twitter allegedly misrepresented to Musk about the “prevalence” of bots and spam accounts on the site, according to Zatko’s complaint to the SEC, FTC, and DoJ. If this accusation is confirmed, Twitter may have violated federal laws when it submitted its Form 10-K with the SEC, in addition to deceiving a possible acquirer of the business.
The deal was once seen as unbreakable because of the $1 billion penalty that any party would incur if they decided to pull out. Twitter launched a lawsuit against Elon Musk when the businessman attempted to bluff out, alleging that he was failing in his duty.
In response, Twitter was accused of withholding phony account numbers and misleading Musk during his due diligence, according to a countersuit Musk filed. October 17 is the date of the trial. Congress has begun a probe into Zatko’s charges after becoming aware of his assertions. On September 14, he is expected to give testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Source: TechSpot
