
Elon Musk has subpoenaed a Twitter whistleblower, seeking documents and communications on the company's spam and alleged security vulnerabilities as the billionaire battles to end his agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion, a court filing on Monday says, according to Reuters.
Musk sought information from whistleblower Peiter Zatko mostly about the way Twitter measures spam accounts, and has also sought documents and communications about alleged attempts to hide security weaknesses, compliance with a 2011 Federal Trade Commission agreement and "Twitter's engagement in any unlawful activity."
A spokesman for Twitter declined to comment.
A famed hacker widely known as "Mudge," Zatko ended a stint as the head of Twitter's security earlier this year, and said in his whistleblower complaint that became public last week that the company falsely claimed it had a solid security plan.
Musk announced in July that he was backing out of the deal to purchase Twitter, agreed upon in April, after alleging the firm failed to provide enough information on fake account numbers.
Twitter fired back at Musk and said his bid to terminate the acquisition of the social media company is “invalid and wrongful.”
A day later, the social media company sued Musk in the Delaware Court of Chancery to force him to go through with the deal.
Musk has filed a countersuit against Twitter which alleges that Musk is entitled to back out of the deal as he was led to believe that Twitter’s user data provided to investors was legitimate.
Last week, Musk subpoenaed Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as part of his counter lawsuit.