Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
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.
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 The complaints also paint a picture of a horribly run technology company, with half of Twitter's servers running out-of-date software, and lack of proper internal controls.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