A whistleblower complained that Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) misled federal regulators about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts, CNN and the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The news reports cited disclosures by the social media company’s former security chief Peiter Zatko, who said the social media company executives are not motivated and don’t have the resources to understand the actual number of bots on the platform entirely.
Twitter is embroiled in a legal battle with Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk after the world’s richest person said in July that he was terminating an agreement to buy the company in a $44 billion deal, alleging it had violated the deal contract.
Musk has accused Twitter of hiding information about calculating the percentage of bots on the service.
The complaint by Zatko was filed last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Washington Post’s report said.
In January, Twitter said Zatko, a famed hacker more widely known as “Mudge”, was no longer its head of security two years after being appointed to the role.
The social media company on Tuesday said Zatko was fired from his senior executive role in January for “ineffective leadership and poor performance”.
“Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders. Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and will continue to be.”
John Tye, the founder of Whistleblower Aid and Zatko’s lawyer, said Zatko has not been in contact with Musk, adding that he began the whistleblower process before Musk’s involvement with Twitter, CNN reported.
Picture Credit: TechCrunch
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