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US court asks Twitter to hand over data of spam, bots accounts to Musk: Report
Elon Musk had offered to buy the social media platform but backed out later only to be sued by Twitter. In a countersuit, Musk accused Twitter of fraud, alleging the social media team held back necessary information and misled his team about the true user base.
A US court has ordered Twitter to hand over details about spam and bot accounts to Musk as part of its legal fight to make him complete the acquisition, Bloomberg reported.
Twitter has been asked to turn over information about 9,000 accounts it surveyed last year in hopes of identifying which were not bots. Twitter sought to deny Musk access to this “historical snapshot” on privacy and other grounds.
Twitter also “must produce documents sufficient to show how those 9,000 accounts were selected for review,” Bloomberg quoted the judge Kathaleen St. J McCormick.
The judge also ruled Twitter didn’t have to broaden the date range of the documents it’s offering to Musk on the question of whether spam and robot accounts make up more than the 5% disclosed in the firm’s securities filings, the Bloomberg report said.
But she also said Musk’s lawyers could withhold reports from their computer experts’ digging into the bot issues as privileged-work product.
While Twitter has to hand over details on the 9,000 accounts, McCormick warned they are subject to strict confidentiality rules. “The historical-snapshot data that I have ordered produced is highly sensitive,” the judge said, adding that Musk’s lawyers agreed to “treat this data as highly confidential.”
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. “We look forward to reviewing the data Twitter has been hiding for many months,” Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, said in an emailed statement.
Twitter is embroiled in a legal battle with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over a $44 billion buyout deal. The billionaire had offered to buy the social media platform but backed out later only to be sued by Twitter. In a countersuit, Musk accused Twitter of fraud, alleging the social media team held back necessary information and misled his team about the true user base.
Both sides are jockeying for position as they prepare for an Oct. 17 trial, sending out a spate of subpoenas to equity investors, advisers and banks involved in the proposed acquisition. Earlier this week, ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was subpoenaed along with whistle-blower Peiter Zatko, who raised concerns about the bot issue before being fired from the platform.
