Twitter shareholders vote in favor of proposed takeover of Elon Musk

Twitter shareholders on Tuesday approved by 98.6% the agreement to buy Twitter from billionaire Elon Musk, a month before the start of the trial which aims to force the latter to honor its commitment. At the same time, Peiter Zatko, the former head of security for the social network, detailed his report submitted to the American authorities on serious security breaches. Twitter shareholders on Tuesday (September 13) approved the agreement to buy the platform by Elon Musk, just after hearing a whistleblower who, like the billionaire, accuses the company of having concealed problems. The vote, 98.6% in favor of the transaction, consolidates the position of the social network a month before the opening of the lawsuit it launched against Elon Musk to force him to honor his commitment. In early July, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX had unilaterally terminated the contract signed at the end of April for the acquisition of Twitter at 54.20 dollars a share, or a valuation of 44 billion dollars. But this election represents little consolation for the maligned blue bird in public by a former senior official. Peiter Zatko, the former security chief of Twitter fired in January, detailed on Tuesday his report submitted to US authorities on serious security breaches. Twitter’s former security chief was heard by US senators on Tuesday, September 13, 2022. He was testifying about serious security failures and the platform’s lack of vigilance over fake accounts. © France 24 “Twitter’s management is deceiving elected officials, regulators and even its own board of directors”, he immediately declared to the senators of the judicial committee. “They don’t know what data they have, where it is, where it comes from and so obviously they can’t protect it,” said the expert better known by his pseudonym, Mudge. “Employees have too much access (…) it doesn’t matter who has the keys if you don’t have locks on the doors,” he noted. “Profits before security” The 51 computer scientist years, recruited at the end of 2020 after a spectacular hacking of certain profiles, claims to have tried to alert the senior leaders of the group, in vain. “They don’t have the skills to understand the extent of the problem,” he said. “Above all, their executive bonuses encourage them to put profits before security.” At the end of August, the revelation by the press of the report of the whistleblower, highly respected in the cybersecurity community, had the effect of ‘a bomb. Twitter dismissed these accusations as unfounded, but they came at a good time for Elon Musk. Whoever wanted to make the platform a public square “essential to democracy”, believes that the San Francisco-based company lied to him about the proportion of automated and spam accounts among its users. In his opinion, it would greatly exceed the 5% estimated by the management of Twitter. Or Peiter Zatko directly mentions in his report the questions asked by the boss of Tesla on bots. He cites “misleading” statements from Parag Agrawal, the network’s chief, and claims that Twitter’s tools are “outdated”, its teams “overwhelmed” and “inefficient”. Popcorn Claims that Elon Musk’s lawyers will try to use to their advantage during the trial scheduled for mid-October in a specialized court. In its press release on the shareholder vote, the Californian group assures “continue to believe that the alleged termination of the takeover agreement is invalid and unfounded”. “I did not make my whistleblower revelations by malice or to harm Twitter,” Mudge assured senators on Tuesday. “Given the real damage to users and national security, I decided it was necessary to take the personal and professional risk, for me and my family, to raise the alarm,” he said. .For his part, Elon Musk tweeted a popcorn emoji, hinting that he was watching the audition with delight. With AFP