If you thought Elon Musk would stay quiet until the court proceedings began in the Musk v. Twitter case, clearly, you don’t know him at all (neither do we, but come on).
What happened: The world’s richest man says a recent whistleblower report by Twitter’s former head of security Pieter Zatko is yet another reason why he should be freed of his US$44 billion obligation to buy the social media site (since Twitter didn’t disclose the alleged misconduct).
- The report contains troubling accusations (if true) concerning user privacy, management of bots, and how the company mislead government authorities.
- Twitter has retaliated by saying Musk’s new reason for terminating the deal is “invalid and wrongful” and argues the whistleblower complaints are inaccurate.
Why it matters: This new reason could be enough for a judge to let Musk back out of the deal, but experts are taking to the internet to remind us that all of this will be very difficult to prove (see one detailed thread here).
Until then, Musk can focus on proving that Twitter lied about the number of bots on the platform, an argument that experts point out is spottier than Starlink after a service outage.
What’s next: The five-day trial is scheduled to start October 17, and both parties have subpoenaed Zatko to testify in court. So buckle your seatbelts; It’s going to be a bumpy ride.