Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
MONTH-IN-BRIEF (Aug 2022)
Business Litigation
Twitter-Tesla Tussle Intensifies with Whistleblower Complaint
Twitter and Tesla are in heated, high stakes litigation over Tesla walking away from its plans to acquire Twitter. Tesla walked away from the deal for, among other things, claiming that Twitter had more spam users and automated bots on its platform than it had represented. Twitter denied the accusations.
It seems Tesla was just given a gift in that litigation.
A Twitter executive responsible for network security and user privacy, to include ferreting out spam and automated bots, filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice. The whistleblower alleged that Twitter was not protecting users’ privacy; that it had more spam and bot accounts then it represented; and that Twitter executives obscured the privacy, account, and network security issues from the board.