Twitter whistleblower's allegations could boost Elon Musk’s legal battle to back out of deal to buy company

Elon Musk may have more justification to withdraw from a bid to acquire Twitter in light of recent whistleblower claims of widespread security vulnerabilities and spam issues at the company.

Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former security chief turned whistleblower, filed an 84-page complaint on Tuesday alleging that the company prioritises user growth over spam prevention, has a plan for severe security issues, and has half of its servers running vulnerable and out-of-date software.

The allegations come as the social network business fights Musk in court following his effort to back out of a $44 billion acquisition deal. According to Anat Alon-Beck, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, Musk's decision to withdraw was motivated by Twitter's reluctance to share information on the prevalence of bot and spam accounts. This makes the timing of Tuesday's disclosures "amazing" for Musk's case.

According to Alon-Beck, it's unclear how Musk's legal team will make advantage of the most recent case developments. Musk must demonstrate a "materialadverse effect" in order to exit the Twitter agreement without paying a $1 billion termination fee. This is required by a clause that says Musk must demonstrate an event thatsignificantly lowers the deal's long-term value.

Up until this point, Musk has relied on claims that Twitter lied about the actual amount of spam and bot accounts on its social media network, which the firm has claimed in corporate filings make up just 5 per cent of accounts. When making his approach to buy the company, Musk claimed he was relying on those papers. Twitter claimed in a lawsuit that the billionaire's assertions were based on "distortion, misrepresentation, and outright deception," and that he was exaggerating the severity of the problem as a justification for pulling out of the agreement.

But according to Ann Lipton, a professor at Tulane Law School, the latest whistleblower allegations give his case a new dimension since they raise further allegations that Twitter concealed security and data privacy flaws and offer "a different basis for fraud."

Both sides have continued to gather evidence as the legal dispute continues in front of a trial that will start in Delaware on October 17. Musk summoned former executive Jack Dorsey on Monday in order to obtain further details.

A number of well-known witnesses have also been subpoenaed by Twitter, including David Sacks, the founding COO of Paypal, and well-known VC Marc Andreessen.

(with inputs from agencies)