[Azure]

Limited information available from the initial disclosure that the Washington Post got their hands on, but I'd imagine we'll learn more as time goes on.

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk alleges Twitter is vastly undercounting the number of spam and bot accounts on its platform. A new whistleblower complaint from a recently fired top Twitter executive could add ammunition to that argument, though it provides little hard evidence to back up a key assertion.

Former head of security Peiter Zatko accuses Twitter of “Lying about Bots to Elon Musk” in a whistleblower complaint filed in July with regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Musk’s team is expected to use the complaint as a basis to argue for wider discovery into Twitter’s internal practices and data, something it could raise as soon as a hearing Wednesday, according to individuals with knowledge of the matter and legal experts who described the implications of such revelations.

Zatko, a well-known figure in the security community, alleges Twitter is not incentivized to tally the true number of bots and spammy accounts on the service, which counts 238 million daily users. And he lays out another argument that could give Musk a potential boost in his fight to prove Twitter broke its contract when he agreed to acquire the company for $44 billion: that Twitter deceived regulators regarding its defenses against hackers.

Importantly, however, Zatko provides limited hard documentary evidence in his complaint regarding spam and bots, so the potential impact of those allegations is difficult to initially gauge. Musk’s lawyers scheduled a deposition with Zatko before the publication of the whistleblower complaint, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing legal matter.

The complaint alleges that Twitter misled regulators from the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission on security issues. Twitter’s Hahn said Zatko’s allegations were “riddled with inaccuracies.”

The true number of bots and spam accounts on Twitter is likely to be “meaningfully higher” than the figure Twitter claims, the complaint alleges.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...whistleblower/