Twitter hunts for connection between whistleblower Peiter Zatko, Elon Musk

After being hammered by whistleblower allegations, Twitter is now seeking if there is a connection between its former head of security, Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The Delaware Court of Chancery in the US, where the legal battle is set to begin from october 17, has agreed on a request by Twitter for details about whether Musk or his associates knew about Zatko's claims before he took them to the public.

Judge Kathleen McCormick on Thursday ordered Musk's legal team to provide some of the documents being requested by Twitter regarding any communications by them with Zatko.

The court order said that the Musk team should provide documents if any of his associate "had knowledge, whether directly or indirectly obtained from Zatko or any other source, of any criticisms, allegation, opinion, or views relating to Twitter that were made or held by Zatko or were attributed to Zatko, during the period November 1, 2020, through August 22, 2022".

Twitter is also requesting from Musk's legal team communications sent or received by from December 1, 2021 through August 22, 2022 that relate to "Zatko or his July 6 complaint, including any of the allegations contained therein".

Twitter is facing a larger scrutiny from the governments after Zatko claimed that the company had negligent security practices, misled federal regulators about its safety, and failed to estimate the number of bots on its platform.

The Tesla CEO is also trying to buy more time from the court to kick off the Twitter trial, set for October 17, citing the testimony by Zatko.

Musk has said that the testimony of Twitter whistleblower justifies his termination of the $44 billion deal to buy the micro-blogging platform.

--IANS

na/ksk/