Twitter Inc has been asked to provide Tesla chief Elon Musk documents from a former Twitter executive who the entrepreneur said was a key person in calculating the number of fake accounts on the platform, according to a Monday court order, reported news agency Reuters. Bot and spam accounts on Twitter remain a key issue in the legal drama over Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
In her order, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery, ordered Twitter to collect, review and produce documents from its former General Manager of Consumer Product Kayvon Beykpour.
In a court filing Musk described Beykpour, who left Twitter after the social media firm agreed in April for the acquisition, as one of the executives "most intimately involved with" determining the amount of spam accounts.
In her order, the judge on Monday denied Musk's request for access to 21 other people with control over relevant information.
Musk's legal team had approached McCormick last week asking her to order Twitter to hand over employee names so they could be questioned.
Musk accused Twitter earlier this month of fraud for misrepresenting the number of real active users on its platform, which Twitter has denied. The company has accused him of breaching his agreement to acquire the company and wants McCormick to order him to complete the deal at $54.20 a share.
Twitter's stock closed up 0.5% at $44.50 per share on Monday.