A US judge on Thursday ordered Twitter to turn over more data on fake accounts to Elon Musk, a key issue the billionaire is using to try to quash his takeover bid.
While giving the Tesla boss’s team an opportunity to back up their argument that Musk was misled, Judge Kathaleen McCormick chided them for “absurdly broad” requests for “trillions and trillions of data points.”
The judge ordered Twitter to turn over data on 9,000 accounts the company audited in late 2021, opening the door for that information to be used in Musk’s efforts to end the $44 billion deal.
“Some additional data from the plaintiff (Twitter) appears to be warranted,” McCormick wrote in her four-page judgment without elaborating.
Musk has argued Twitter was dishonest about the number of fake or spam accounts, prompting strong denials and a lawsuit from the social media company, which has led to a court hearing set for mid-October.
Musk’s lawyers at a hearing Wednesday urged the company to release mountains of information while addressing claims by a newly uncovered Twitter whistleblower about serious mistakes within the company.
Twitter attorney Bradley Wilson countered that the company hadn’t deceived anyone and that Musk wanted an “overhaul” on questions he should have asked before making his unsolicited takeover bid earlier this year.
The company resisted sharing certain types of data on grounds including the possibility of violating users’ legally protected privacy, argued its attorney, Wilson.
Even if Musk’s experts came to a different conclusion about the number of spam accounts on Twitter, it wouldn’t be a violation serious enough to breach the acquisition agreement, Twitter lawyers argue.
Whistleblower Peiter Zatko’s complaint to US authorities accuses Twitter of having provided untrue information about account numbers because “if precise measurements were ever published, it would damage the image and the company’s valuation”.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the complaint and its use by Musk’s attorneys would significantly change the course of the case.
Twitter’s lawyers had raised concerns that Musk could misuse sensitive information they give his lawyers.
The judge said the billionaire’s team “agreed to keep this data strictly confidential.”
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