Elon Musk Has Officially Subpoenaed Twitter's Whistleblower

Shortly after the court has granted Elon Musk access to a small, yet important portion of Twitter‘s data, the legal battle between the two continues to escalate as the social media platform’s former security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko has been subpoenaed to be deposed on September 9.

Zatko has been known as Twitter’s whistleblower after he submitted a length complaining against his former company to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. While he did accuse the company of many issues, he highlights its security problems and suggests that it could post a national security risk. The Verge recently obtained the subpoena which included a detailed range of documents that are included in the deposition.

Zatko is expected to turn over any materials that are related to how spam accounts impact Twitter’s business or those referring to using the mDAU figure as a “key metric.” Aside from being deposed, Zatko’s final months at Twitter and his ongoing ownership of Twitter stock will be under investigation by the court. The court has also asked to see have all documents related to any illegal activity by Twitter or other foreign intelligence agents employed by the company. While Twitter’s current CEO Parag Agrawal has disputed Zatko’s claims and even going as far as calling them a “false narrative”, many of the leading voices in the cybersecurity field has backed up Zatko’s credibility.

In other tech news, an unopened first generation Apple iPhone auctioned for over $35K USD.