Musk subpoenas Twitter bot whistle-blower in buyout dispute

Lawyers for Elon Musk subpoenaed a whistle-blower who says Twitter Inc. officials didn’t know or care to find out how many of the social-media platform’s accounts were spam and robot accounts as the billionaire seeks to cancel a $44 billion buyout of the company.

Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s ex-head of security, said in a lawsuit last week that the company had “egregious deficiencies” in its defenses against hackers and lacked concern for privacy issues. Zatko also said he raised concerns to company officials about the number of bots on the system and that those apprehensions were ignored.

Some analysts say Zatko’s claims bolster Musk’s legal argument that he can walk away from the Twitter deal over the bot issue. Twitter sued Musk in July to force him to complete his proposed acquisition. Since then, more than 100 people, banks, funds and other firms have been subpoenaed in the Delaware suit, with a trial scheduled to begin Oct. 17.