On Wednesday, Sept. 8, former Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed at Vox Media's Code conference that Twitter's bot spam accounts were one of the reasons why Disney did not pursue its acquisition of the platform in 2016.
Twitter's Bot Problem
According to New York Post, Iger said many Twitter users are fake accounts. He also noted that Disney had looked closely at Twitter's users during its negotiations.
In 2016, Disney was on the verge of acquiring Twitter, but Iger pulled the plug because he said the platform was full of bots, spam, and hate speech.
Iger's claims are similar to Elon Musk's reason behind his decision to back out of the $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter.
Iger stepped down from his position in 2020 to make way for current Disney CEO Bob Chapek.
Meanwhile, Musk is scheduled to attend a trial in October after Twitter filed a case against him for backing out of the deal.
Twitter states that less than 5% of the platform's monthly users are fake or spam accounts, but Musk says the numbers are much higher.
Twitter's Case Against Musk
According to Gizmodo, Twitter's lawyers had a strong opening argument during the court hearing in July, calling Musk a buyer conjuring an exit plan.
Musk's lawyers fought back and said that Twitter was not transparent with the number of bots and spam accounts on the platform and that the social media company did not provide the documents that Musk asked for when the deal was signed.
Musk's team wanted to delay the three-day trial to November, but the Delaware judge overseeing the case denied his request since a further delay of the trial will negatively impact Twitter's business.
Now, the trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 17.
Whistleblower's Statements
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick may have denied Musk's request to delay the trial, but she did grant his request to add Peiter Zatko's claims against Twitter to his arguments in court.
According to The Verge, Peiter Zatko is Twitter's former head of security. In a 200-page document, Zatko revealed that Twitter had hidden its negligent security practices from its customers and shareholders.
Zatko also claimed that Twitter execs misled federal regulators about the platform's safety, and they failed to estimate the number of bots on the platform.
In August, Zatko filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and accused Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating its agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
According to The Washington Post, Zatko was fired from his job at Twitter in January after he refused to stay quiet about the company's vulnerabilities.
Zatko joined Twitter in 2020 and answered directly to then-CEO Jack Dorsey. He was hired after the platform was hit by a massive hack in which accounts belonging to celebrities and politicians were compromised.
The Twitter whistleblower said he joined the company because he believes that Twitter is a critical resource for the world but became disillusioned by the refusal of current CEO Agrawal to tackle the company's security problems.
Related Article: Twitter's Whistleblower Claims Company Mislead Investors and Regulators About its Security and Privacy
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Written by Sophie Webster
