Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase created ‘chaotic environment’, court filing claims

Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter – now X – led to a “chaotic environment” that could have violated a Federal Trade order, a court filing claims.

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter created a “chaotic environment” that could have violated a government order, a court filing claims.

The 52-year-old billionaire took over the social media giant – which he has recently rebranded as X – last year for $44 billion, but has found himself in legal hot water over “serious questions” raised by ex-staffers about whether the company was adhering to guidelines imposed by the Federal Trade Commission, according to allegations made in a lawsuit.

The filing – which was submitted in July – reads: “The information obtained revealed a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring X Corp’s compliance with the 2022 administrative order.”

Twitter’s former director of security engineering, Andrew Sayler, testified about having “ongoing questions about Elon’s commitment to the overall security and privacy of the organisation” because he thought “the manner in which Elon was requesting us to grant access to third parties that had not undergone our regular vetting process … [had] some degree of disregard for the overall sensitivity and security at that level of access”.

Another employee claimed that Elon – who was condemned by many for making the verification system a paid-for feature after it was brought in to slow the spread of fake news and increase trust in users – “insisted on launching the new Twitter Blue user verification service on an accelerated basis, despite staffing limitations”.

This case comes after Twitter, before the Tesla CEO bought it, agreed to pay a $150 million fine after an investigation into misrepresenting its data privacy.

Earlier this year, it was announced the FTC was looking into Elon’s decision to let go more some of the workforce and was seeking to get copies of the internal communications, according to a report made by Congress.