Bot and spam accounts on Twitter have become a central issue in the legal fight over whether Musk, who is Tesla’s chief executive, must complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
Elon Musk’s legal team is demanding that Twitter Inc turn over the names of employees responsible for calculating what percentage of the social media site’s users are bot and spam accounts, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Bot and spam accounts on Twitter have become a central issue in the legal fight over whether Musk, who is Tesla’s chief executive, must complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
Musk said last month he was terminating the deal because Twitter has withheld information about these accounts. Twitter sued Musk to complete the deal, and has said the issue has no bearing on the agreement with Musk.
Twitter and Musk are in the discovery phase of the lawsuit and readying for a trial scheduled to begin Oct. 17 in Delaware. Both sides have issued subpoenas to banks and advisers as they seek to gather evidence.
The process also includes agreeing on “custodians,” or people with control over relevant information.
In a letter filed under seal on Tuesday, Musk’s lawyers asked the judge overseeing the case to compel Twitter to hand over the employee names so that the defense team can question them, the source said.
Bloomberg first reported the request by Musk’s lawyers.
Twitter and a lawyer for Musk declined to comment. Twitter has previously said it has worked to cooperatively share relevant information with Musk to complete the deal.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
Thailand allows Rajapaksa to temporarily stay in country, but has one condition
Thailand foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said that the Sri Lankan government led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe did not object to Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to Thailand. However, the former president need to figure out his accommodation himself as the Thai government has refused to make any arrangements for the same.
-
Global Covid deaths drop by 9%, Omicron subvariant BA.5 remains dominant: WHO
The WHO said that the Omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to remain dominant worldwide, contributing nearly 70 per cent to all virus sequences shared with the world’s biggest publicly available virus database. It added that other Omicron subvariants such as BA.4 and BA.2, appear to be decreasing in prevalence as BA.5 takes control.
-
First special business flight with over 100 Indian traders lands in China
A special flight with 107 Indian traders landed in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou on Tuesday, carrying many who were stuck in India since 2020 despite business interests in China because of the restrictions imposed by Beijing on international travel to contain Covid-19. This particular group of Indian merchants boarded the special China Southern Airlines flight from New Delhi and landed in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, on Tuesday.
-
_1660138974963_1660138996490_1660138996490.jpg "Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.")
Mexican President proposes peace commission led by 3 leaders including PM Modi
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is planning to submit a written proposal to the UN to create a commission, made up of three world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to promote a world truce for a period of five years, MSN web portal reported. The Mexican President proposed that the top commission should include Pope Francis, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and Indian PM Narendra Modi.
-
In major policy shift, China says it will take Taiwan by force if necessary
China on Wednesday, in only its third white paper on Taiwan since 1993 and the first after President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, said it will not “renounce” the use of military force to bring the self-governed island under its control as its armed forces concluded the largest ever exercises around the island but announced that it will conduct regular patrols in the region.