Tesla CEO Elon Musk has subpoenaed former Twitter employee Peiter Zatko to produce documents for the billionaire to use against the San Francisco social media company in their upcoming Delaware trial.
Musk's legal team on Monday subpoenaed Zatko for "documents and communications reflecting, referring to, or relating to the impact or effect of false or spam accounts on Twitter’s business and operations and communications on the company's spam and alleged security vulnerabilities," according to court filings.
Zatko, a high-profile former hacker known as "Mudge" who was fired as Twitter's former head of security earlier this year, recently filed a whistleblower complaint against the company that accused it of failing to protect sensitive user data and misrepresenting its problems. The 84-page complaint, which was submitted to the SEC in July and made public August 23, alleges that Twitter prioritized user growth over reducing spam, with executives eligible to win hefty bonuses tied to increases in daily users, and no incentives explicitly for cutting spam.
Twitter fired Zatko from his security job in January for what the company called "ineffective leadership and poor performance," a claim Zatko's attorneys dispute. He is represented by an organization known as Whistleblower Aid.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will also hold a hearing seeking testimony from Zatko on Sept. 13.
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