Bloomberg News reports that the microblogging site Twitter Inc. made payments to a whistleblower who had raised questions about operational issues with Twitter. He was paid as much as $7 million for his silence and not divulging the same. A lawyer of Elon Musk stated this.
The mention of the payment was made in a hearing that took place on September 6th between Twitter Inc and Elon Musk. Musk withdrew from the deal worth $44 billion in his attempt to buy Twitter Inc. Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, stated that they (Twitter Inc.) are paying the man $7 million to ensure that the guy stays quiet. Individuals familiar with the matter have confirmed that the payment was to the whistleblower named Peiter Zatko.
Representatives of Twitter Inc refused to comment about the payment made to Peiter Zatko, the company’s former security head. However, the same was confirmed on Thursday by Wall Street Journal. But the newspaper referring to a few people about the information, said the payment was made as part of the compensation which the former executive is entitled to follow his dissociation from the company. Zatko did not comment publicly but will be allowed to act as a government whistleblower related to his time at the former company, as the social media firm reported by the Journal.
Bloomberg News reports that both sides are preparing for a trial in October which would see Twitter Inc trying to force Elon Musk to carry out the deal. Musk’s request to add claims related to Zatko was approved by the Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St Jude McCormick Wednesday. However, she did not approve Musk’s request to defer the trial.
The billionaire has been arguing about the number of bots embedded in the microblogging site’s customer base, referring to privacy issues and loopholes in computer security as raised by Zatko, the reason he was fired.
On the other hand, the lawyers of Twitter argued while defending themselves to McCormick that the credibility of Zatko is questionable and dismissed claims as an attempt to tarnish the image of Twitter since he was fired.
