Twitter shareholders on Tuesday approved Elon Musk’s deal to buy the platform, shortly after hearings from a whistleblower who, like the billionaire, accused the company of covering up problems. The 98.6% vote in favor of the deal strengthens the social network’s position a month before a lawsuit is filed against Elon Musk to force him to honor his commitment. In early July, the head of Tesla and SpaceX unilaterally terminated the agreement signed in late April to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, or a valuation of $44 billion.
But this election is scant consolation for a bluebird publicly criticized by a former senior official. Peter Zatko, the former security chief of Twitter who was fired in January, detailed his report to the US authorities on serious security breaches on Tuesday. “Twitter management has lied to elected officials, regulators, and even its own board membershe originally told senators on the Judiciary Committee. “They don’t know what data they have, where it is, where it’s coming from, and obviously they can’t protect it“said the expert, who is better known by his pseudonym, Maj. “Employees have too much access (…) it doesn’t matter who has the keys if you don’t have locks on the doors“, he noted.
“Profit before safety»
The 51-year-old computer scientist, who was recruited in late 2020 after a spectacular hack of certain profiles, claims he tried in vain to alert the group’s senior officials. “They lack the skills to understand the extent of the problem“, he insisted. “Above all, their executive bonuses encourage them to put profit before safety.“. This remark “is partially invalidated by Twitter’s adoption of a +premium service+commented Jasmine Enberg, analyst of Insider Intelligence. But Madge’s accusations still hurt.”like Twitter, which has made the safety and security of its users a priority“, he added.
In late August, the press release of a report by a well-respected whistleblower in the cybersecurity community had the effect of a bombshell. Twitter has dismissed the allegations as baseless, but they come at a good time for Elon Musk. Someone who wanted to make the platform a public place for a while.”essential to democracy,” believes the San Francisco-based company misled it about the proportion of automated accounts and spam among its users. In his opinion, it will greatly exceed the 5% estimated by the management of Twitter.
But in his report, Peter Zatko directly mentions questions about bots from the head of Tesla. He notes statementsmisleadingNetwork CEO Parag Agrawal and claims that Twitter’s tools are;out of date“his teams”overloaded“and”ineffective“. Claims that Elon Musk’s lawyers will try to use it in their favor during the trial scheduled for mid-October in a specialized court. “For Wall Street, Zatko’s Senate testimony puts more pressure on the Twitter campWedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives tweeted:
The California group assures in its press release regarding the shareholders’ vote.continue to believe that the purported termination of the repurchase agreement is invalid and unreasonable“. “I did not make my whistleblower disclosures out of malice or to harm TwitterOn Tuesday, Mudge assured the senators. “Given the real harm to users and national security, I decided it was necessary to take personal and professional risk for me and my family to raise the alarm.“, he emphasized. In turn, Elon Musk tweeted a popcorn emoji, hinting that he enjoyed watching the auditions.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.