Allegations to Justify Elon Musk from Twitter's Fired Employee

Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Twitter's former head of security, claimed that the company misled regulators and its own board of directors on security measures. If these allegations are true, it could help Elon Musk in his lawsuit against Twitter.

Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Twitter's former head of security, was sacked in January 2022 from a job he started in November 2020. Zatko claims that his firing was a retaliation for the company's unwillingness to remain silent about its vulnerabilities. The company's former head of security didn't stay quiet, as he said, and filed a complaint on Twitter with the SEC last month.

Zatko claims that Twitter has deceived both shareholders and regulators and that the company has not disclosed the "terrible" shortcomings in its security practices. The former head of security also alleges that Twitter violated an agreement it signed with the FTC in 2011, in a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Elon Musk may be right in his lawsuit against Twitter

As you know, Elon Musk wanted to buy Twitter for $44 billion. However, Musk, who had a big argument with the company because of the number of bot accounts, had given up on the purchase decision in the past months. The famous billionaire accused Twitter of fraud in the past weeks. In fact, Musk's lawyers called the former CEO and founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, to court and asked him to support the allegations on this issue.

Zatko has made several claims that Twitter has made more than 5% of active users spam bots or fake accounts. Zatko claimed that the company's way of reporting this estimate is deliberately misleading because it is defined as Twitter's total monetizable daily active users (mDAU). He also claimed that Twitter administrators received a financial incentive to increase user numbers with bonuses of up to $10 million, even though they were not rewarded for eliminating spam bots. Considering these claims made by the company's former security chief, it is said that Musk can win the case.

“It was the right thing to do in the name of democracy”

Zatko's allegations include serious issues such as that nearly half of Twitter's employees have easy access to users' email addresses, phone numbers, and internal systems. Again, allegedly, four out of 10 devices on Twitter fail to meet basic security standards.

Asked why he reported Twitter, Zatko said that he decided to step forward and make Twitter's problems public because he believed this was the right thing to do in the name of democracy. Commenting on Zatko's allegations, a Twitter representative said, "What we've seen so far is nothing more than claims about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices, which are full of inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack significant context."

“Security and privacy have always been, and will continue to be, a priority for Twitter,” the representative said, adding that Zatko’s allegations and timing were entirely designed to harm Twitter, its users, and shareholders.