Twitter should put efforts in tackling bots, not in serving subpoenas: Musk

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday said that Twitter should put more effort into tackling bots and spams on its platform and not in serving subpoenas to his friends.

Musk's friend David Sacks has already lost a bid to quash a Twitter subpoena because of his controversial tweets aimed at the micro-blogging platform that included an image of a middle finger, as well as a video of a man urinating on a subpoena.

Sacks, CEO of Craft Ventures and member of the "PayPal mafia", lost his appeal after being subpoenaed by Twitter for his correspondence with Musk, according to court documents.

Gary Black, Managing Partner, The Future Fund LLC, posted on Twitter that Musk needs to be very careful not to disrespect Twitter counsel or the court as "Judge McCormick is a no-nonsense judge with a gift for wicked prose. She will tear Elon apart if he shows disrespect for the court. See Friday's ruling on David Sacks subpoenas".

Musk replied: "Read the actual ruling. We had zero to do with David Sack's response. Zero."

The Tesla CEO further said: "If Twitter put as much effort into bot/spam removal as they do into subpoenas, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place!"

Sacks had taken out a non-disclosure agreement to evaluate a potential investment in connection with Musk's acquisition of Twitter, according to Insider, citing the court filing.

Sacks responded to Twitter subpoena by tweeting a picture of a middle finger from a Mad magazine cover, and posting a follow-up video from "The Wolf of Wall Street" of a character urinating on a subpoena.

This "obscene" behaviour prompted Twitter to file a complaint with the court, and was cited by the judge as the reason the subpoena could not be quashed.

Musk has terminated the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal, and the matter is now in a US court, over the presence of bots on the platform, and seeks answers from Agrawal via an open debate.

The Musk-Twitter trial is slated to begin from October 17.

--IANS

na/shb/