Amid Elon Musk's allegations that the deal with Twitter was broken because the social media company is not ready to share information on bots on the platform, former security chief Peiter Zatko has revealed that Twitter Inc has misled federal regulators.
He alleged that Twitter executives do not have the resources to fully understand the actual number of bots on the platform. They were also not motivated to find out this detail, reported CNN.
His statements come at a time when the Tesla founder Musk has alleged that Twitter violated their contract by not sharing information on how it calculates the percentage of bots. The entrepreneur billionaire broke off a $44 billion deal over the same.
A trial is scheduled for October 17, 2022. Elon Musk's legal team has subpoenaed Zatko.
Zatko was Twitter's head of security for two years. In January, the microblogging platform announced that the famed hacker is no longer working for it. According to a Twitter spokesperson, Zatko was fired due to ineffective leadership and poor performance.
Zatko revealed the details in a complaint filed last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
He, in an 84-page complaint, alleged that Twitter has been falsely claiming that it has a solid security plan. He wrote that half the company's servers are out of date and have vulnerable software.
Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal told the employees that the company is reviewing the redacted claims. He called it a false narrative riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies. He added that Zatko's words are presented without important context, reported CNN.
The whistleblower document claims that Twitter prioritised user growth over reducing spam. A spokesperson for the Senate Intelligence Committee said the matter is being taken seriously.