Elon Musk posted a cryptic tweet in response to the explosive allegations of the former security chief of Twitter that the company misled the federal government over its alleged efforts to protect user data and crack down on spam and bot accounts.
The Tesla boss tweeted a photo of Disney character Jiminy Cricket making a whistling gesture.
“Give a little whistle,” reads the cartoon.
In a later tweet, Musk wrote, “So the prevalence of spam *was* shared with the board, but the board chose not to [to] release this to the public…”
The attached tweet is a screenshot of a Washington Post article which revealed that Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the notorious hacker who was hired by Twitter two years ago to overhaul its cybersecurity operation, denounced the company.
Zatko filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission that appears to agree with Musk’s assertion that Twitter failed to properly account for the number of spam and bots on its platform.
Zatko also alleged that Twitter’s security features are so lax that tens of thousands of lower- and mid-level employees have access to the site’s most sensitive controls, making it vulnerable to snooping by foreign actors. hostile.
When Zatko told his superiors about the inadequate security procedures, he claims he was told to present a positive review that hid the issues when sharing information with the company’s board.
Twitter denied Zatko’s allegations. The company also rejected his claims that he was fired after reporting the issue to his bosses.
Twitter insists Zatko was fired for poor performance.
Musk and Twitter are ready to fight a legal battle in a Delaware court after the company sued the Tesla mogul for trying to reverse a $44 billion deal to buy the social media site and take it private.
The world’s richest person sought to abort the deal because he claimed the company was not open to the proliferation of spam accounts and automated bots. Twitter disputes this.
Experts told the Post that Musk don’t fall into the trap of thinking that Zatko’s charges will be a boon to his lawsuit against Twitter.
Following Zatko’s allegations, La Poste learned from sources close to the situation that Musk plans to press for access to Twitter’s internal geolocation data related to spam and bot accounts at an upcoming court hearing on Wednesday.
Geolocation data could help Musk better analyze Twitter’s fake accounts problem, a source familiar with the matter said.
Additional reporting by Josh Kosman and Theo Wayt