By Kelvin Chan & Tom Krisher
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) --Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter lobbed more accusations at each other Tuesday in the latest round of legal filings over Musk's efforts to rescind his offer to buy the social media platform.
Musk filed more paperwork in his bid to terminate the deal, this time based on information in a whistleblower complaint filed by Twitter's former head of security.
Twitter fired back by saying Musk's attempt to back out is "invalid and wrongful."
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk said his legal team notified Twitter of "additional bases" for ending the deal on top of the ones given in the original termination notice issued in July.
Twitter has sued Musk, asking the Delaware Chancery Court to force him to go through with the $44 billion deal. A high-stakes trial is set to start the week of Oct. 17.
In a letter to Twitter Inc., which was included in the filing, Musk's advisors cited the whistleblower report by former executive Peiter Zatko — also known by his hacker handle "Mudge."
Zatko, who served as Twitter's head of security until he was fired early this year, alleged in his complaint to U.S. officials that the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread disinformation.
The Musk letter, addressed to Twitter's Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, said Zatko's allegations provide extra reasons to end the deal if the July termination notice "is determined to be invalid for any reason."
Billionaire Musk has spent months alleging that the company he agreed to acquire undercounted its fake and spam accounts, which means he doesn't have to go through with the deal.
In a separate SEC filing, Twitter responded to what it called Musk's latest "purported termination," saying it's "based solely on statements made by a third party that, as Twitter has previously stated, are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack important context."
Zatko received a subpoena Saturday from Musk's team compelling him to testify in what Zatko's lawyers emphasized would be an "involuntary" deposition ahead of the coming courtroom battle between Twitter and Musk.
"He did not make his whistleblower disclosures to the appropriate governmental bodies to benefit Musk or to harm Twitter, but rather to protect the American public and Twitter shareholders," Zatko's lawyers wrote in a prepared statement.
Twitter is likely to amend its lawsuit to include Zatko's allegations, so the court can decide on both the bot and cybersecurity issues. That could delay the trial because Musk will say he needs more time to prepare, said Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College.
The court will have to decide whether the bot or cybersecurity issues are a "material adverse effect" that will harm Twitter's business for years — a difficult legal bar to clear, Quinn said.
The bot issue, which Twitter disclosed in filings with the SEC, seems to be an issue that Twitter would win on, Quinn said. Cybersecurity problems raised by Zatko may not be such an easy victory, he said.
"This is more grist for the mill," Quinn said. "It's not as obvious for the most part that this is a winner for Twitter. But once you start to analyze these closely, it's still an uphill battle for Musk."
Associated Press Writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this report.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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