SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk shook up the tech world when he put in a bid to buy Twitter. The information uncovered in the purchase is more important than the deal itself, however.
Musk's legal team has issued its third termination notice to cancel the agreement to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, Breitbart reported. The grounds this time include a multi-million dollar severance payout to an ex-employee who became a whistleblower.
The attorneys have argued that paying $7 million in severance to Peiter "Mudge" Zatko violates a clause in the acquisition agreement that forbade extraordinary to any "Company Service Provider," including the social media platform's ex-employees. Zatko served as security chief until he was fired in Jan. 2022.
Zatko recently made startling revelations about the company, including its lack of data security and its incompetence in dealing with bots and fake accounts. Although Zatko had signed a nondisclosure agreement upon his termination, he was not barred from testifying before Congressional.
Previously, Musk had attempted to back out of the deal due to problems verifying how many real users were on the platform. The Tesla mogul's second attempt to cancel the purchase came from Zatko's earlier revelations.
Zatko appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday with more startling claims, including his contention that Twitter knowingly placed foreign intelligence agents on the company payroll. He said there was "at least one agent" from China and said he spoke with "high confidence" on this matter.
"I am here today because Twitter leadership is misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators, and even its own board of directors," Zatko said about the problems protecting data, according to the Associated Press. "They don't know what data they have, where it lives and where it came from, and so, unsurprisingly, they can't protect it."
Zatko is a well-respected cybersecurity expert and made serious claims. Even if Musk ultimately doesn't acquire the company because of these problems, perhaps the public will finally learn what's going on at Twitter.