Twitter accused of paying whistleblower $7 million to secure his silence

Alleged payment was mentioned at a hearing in the lawsuit between Twitter and Elon Musk over his attempts to cancel a $44 billion deal to purchase the company

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk walked away from his acquisition of Twitter after claiming the platform misled him and investors. Reuters

Twitter paid a whistleblower who raised questions about operational problems within the social media platform $7 million to secure his silence, a lawyer for Elon Musk has said.

The payment was mentioned in passing at a September hearing in the lawsuit between Twitter and Mr Musk, amid a dispute over his attempts to cancel a $44 billion purchase of the company.

“They’re paying the guy $7m and making sure he’s quiet,” lawyer Alex Spiro, who is representing Mr Musk, said at the hearing.

Sources confirmed the reference was to a payment to whistleblower Peiter Zatko.

Twitter representatives on Thursday declined to comment about the payment to Mr Zatko, the company’s former head of security.

The Wall Street Journal reported the payment on Thursday. The newspaper, citing sources, said the payment was part of a settlement related to Mr Zatko’s lost compensation after leaving Twitter.

The deal didn’t let Mr Zatko speak publicly, but would allow him to act as a government whistleblower about his time at the social media company, the Journal reported.

Mr Musk walked away from his acquisition of Twitter after claiming the platform misled him and investors about the number of spam and bot accounts among its more than 230 million users.

Twitter counters that Mr Musk’s bot concerns are a pretext to find a way out of a deal in which the world’s richest person allegedly developed buyer’s remorse.

Both sides are gearing up for an October trial of Twitter’s lawsuit to force Mr Musk to consummate the deal.

On Wednesday, Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St Jude McCormick approved Mr Musk’s bid to add Mr Zatko’s allegations to his counterclaims. But she denied his push to delay the trial.

The billionaire argues Mr Zatko raised concerns about the number of bots embedded in Twitter’s customer base along with allegations of lax computer security and privacy issues before being fired from the social media platform.

Mr Musk contends Mr Zatko’s claims bolster his arguments that he legitimately nixed the deal.

During their argument to Ms McCormick, Twitter’s lawyers took aim at Mr Zatko’s credibility, dismissing his complaints as being motivated to harm the company he was fired from and not credible.

Mr Spiro defended Mr Zatko by saying the whistleblower did not just take his money and leave his issues with Twitter behind.

Instead, he approached Congress and regulators with his complaints. Mr Zatko is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee next week and has been subpoenaed to testify in the Twitter lawsuit, as well.

“The problem is that they paid him $7m,” Mr Spiro told the judge. “The problem is that if he really wanted money, then how come he’s still doing this if he doesn’t want justice also.”