Twitter Agreed To Pay Whistleblower ‘Mudge’ $7 Million In June Settlement: Report

Twitter Inc paid a whistle-blower who raised alarm about operational problems within the social media platform $7 million to secure his silence, according to a lawyer of Elon Musk

Twitter account displayed on a phone

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New Delhi: The legal battle between Tesla chief Elon Musk and Twitter is taking interesting turns as the latest revelation says the social micro-blogging site agreed in June to pay about $7 million to the whistleblower, whose allegations will be used by Musk to strengthen his case against the social media firm.

Twitter Inc paid a whistle-blower who raised alarm about operational issues within the social media platform $7 million to secure his silence, according to a lawyer of Elon Musk, reported the Wall Street Journal on Thursday citing its sources, according to Reuters.

Peiter Zatko, who is more popular as "Mudge", was fired by Twitter in January as the company's security head. Zatko accused the social media firm of its false claims of having a solid security plan and making misleading statements about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts.

Zatko is scheduled to meet the US Senate Judiciary committee on September 13 to discuss the allegations.

What was the settlement with Zatko?

The settlement was done days before Zatko filed his whistleblower complaint in July, according to the WSJ report. In the settlement, Zatko agreed to a nondisclosure agreement that forbids him from speaking publicly about his time at Twitter or disparaging the company, the WSJ reported.

The confidential June settlement was all about Zatko's lost compensation as a result of mediation that took place over months regarding tens of millions of dollars in potential pay, the WSJ reported.

Twitter has called Zatko's claims "false narratives," and on Tuesday, the company's counsel said that the billionaire was using the whistleblower claims to hide the fact that he allegedly rushed into buying the business without fully understanding the dangers.

Musk is embroiled in a legal tussle with Twitter over his offer to buy the company for $44 billion after he moved away from the deal saying the social media firm had misled him about the number of bots and fake accounts on the site.