• News

Twitter (TWTR) whistleblower alleges execs misled Musk, investors, and the board

Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko files complaint with SEC, FTC, and DOJ alleging 'extreme, egregious deficiencies' at the company related to security, privacy, and content moderation.

Asif Khan

August 23, 2022 11:05 AM

Image: MEND.io

1

Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko, former head of security, has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice alleging "extreme, egregious deficiencies by the social media company with respects to security, privacy, and content moderation. The complaint also mentions misrepresentations made by Twitter to Elon Musk, who is currently in legal battle over his $44 billion acquisition offer.

diss-parag-ing is what they meant

— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) July 13, 2022

The complaints were filed by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit law firm that also aided Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen last year. In a complaint filed with the SEC by Twitter's former head of security, Zatko claims he “witnessed senior executive engaging in deceitful and/or misleading communications affecting Board members, users and shareholders” on multiple occasion in 2021. Even more damning in the report is the accusation that embattled Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal asked Zatko to provide misleading and false documents.

Zakto's complaint also states that Agrawal had lied about Twitter's incentive to remove bots and spam because "if accurate measurements ever became public, it would harm the image and valuation of the company." The complaints also paint a picture of a horribly run technology company, with half of Twitter's servers running out-of-date software, and lack of proper internal controls.

Disclosure of the actual amount of bots on the social media platform have been at the core of Musk's fight over the $44 billion acquisition offer. Today's news is certainly hurting shareholders with Twitter stock currently down over 5% on the day.

This article is only meant for educational purposes, and should not be taken as investment advice. Please consider your own investment time horizon, risk tolerance, and consult with a financial advisor before acting on this information.

Full Disclosure:

At the time of this article, Shacknews primary shareholder Asif A. Khan, his family members, or his company Virtue LLC had the following positions:

Long Twitter via TWTR shares

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.