Musk Subpoenas Twitter Whistleblower

Image copyright: Getty Images [via The New York Times]

The Facts

  • On Mon., Elon Musk's lawyers issued a subpoena to Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko as part of an effort to back out of the $44B deal to purchase the social media company.

  • Zatko recently made a complaint to regulatory agencies and the Justice Dept. accusing Twitter of misleading the public and Musk about its security practices, an accusation Twitter executives deny.


The Spin

Narrative A

This could be the breakthrough Musk needs to make a more legitimate exit from this deal. Although his claims about bots are weak, revelations about data privacy violations could have a better chance of convincing a judge he has a right to terminate his agreement with Twitter.

Narrative B

This might not help Musk as much as he hopes: with the trial coming up quickly, the court may be hesitant to allow him to include these allegations in his case, and Musk would have to meet a higher standard of proving fraud in a federal court.


Public figures in this story


Articles on this story