Twitter agreed to pay whistleblower $7 million in June compensation settlement

(Reuters) -Twitter Inc agreed in June to pay $7 million to settle a compensation dispute with the whistleblower whose allegations shall be a part of Elon Musk’s case towards the corporate, in line with a supply acquainted with the matter.

Whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who was fired by Twitter in January and was the corporate’s safety head, final month accused the social media agency of falsely claiming it had a stable safety plan and making deceptive statements about its defenses towards hackers and spam accounts.

Zatko will meet the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee on Sept. 13 to debate the allegations.

The settlement resolved a dispute about unpaid compensation and didn’t forestall him from submitting a whistleblower grievance, which he did quickly after reaching the settlement with Twitter, in line with the supply.

Zatko’s legal professional stated Zatko can’t touch upon the existence of a settlement with Twitter.

Zatko’s settlement was first reported by the Wall Avenue Journal, which stated he agreed to a nondisclosure settlement that forbids him from talking publicly about his time at Twitter or disparaging the corporate.

Particulars of Zatko’s settlement will quickly be made public within the court docket filings in Twitter’s authorized battle with Musk, who has claimed he can stroll away from his $44-billion settlement to purchase the social media firm.

Musk has alleged the corporate misled him concerning the variety of bots or faux accounts on the platform and concerning the correct method to measure lively customers. Twitter is suing him to power him to purchase the corporate for $54.20 a share. A trial is scheduled for subsequent month.

Twitter inventory was up about 1% in late Thursday commerce at $41.72 a share.

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Shounak Dasgupta and Nick Zieminski)