Twitter Refutes Elon Musk’s Claim That Paying Whistleblower Breached Deal

Twitter reportedly stated that it did not breach any of the terms of its $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,49,900 crore) takeover deal with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday. The microblogging service was accused by Musk of violating the conditions of the deal as he made another attempt to exit the deal. While he has previously claimed that he was misled regarding the number of fake or spam users on Twitter, Musk on Friday cited Twitter’s payment of $7.75 million (roughly Rs. 60 crore) to Peiter Zatko as a reason to walk away from the deal. 

According to a report by Reuters, Twitter has responded to a letter sent by Elon Musk’s lawyers to Twitter, stating that the company did not breach any of the conditions part of the deal to acquire the microblogging platform that was signed earlier this year.

Musk’s lawyers sent a letter to Twitter on Friday, stating that the company had not sought his consent before paying $7.75 million (roughly Rs. 60 crore) to Zatko, according to the report. The Tesla CEO’s lawyers have also claimed that Twitter was restricted from making these payments, and the failure to seek his consent was a violation of the merger agreement. 

The whistleblower, who was formerly the head of security at Twitter, was fired in January. Last month, it was reported that Zatko had filed a complaint claiming Twitter misled regulators by stating that it had a solid security plan,with regard to hackers and its handling of spam or fake accounts.

 On Friday, it was reported that Musk’s laywers had claimed that the company paid its former chief of security and whistleblower a rum of $7 million (roughly Rs. 55 crore) to remain silent about operational problems within the company.

As per the report, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro made the claim during a hearing last week ahead of the upcoming October court battle between Elon Musk and Twitter. The report suggests that the whistleblower is Zatko, who is believed to have been paid by the company for lost compensation after leaving the company.