Musk Subpoenas Former Twitter CEO Dorsey

Facts

• Elon Musk has subpoenaed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as part of an effort to back out of his $44B deal to purchase the social media company.
• The subpoena - made public on Monday - seeks documents and communications dating back to Jan. 1, 2019, regarding Twitter's accounting of fake accounts.
• Twitter is suing Musk to enforce the agreed-upon purchase, with Musk countersuing and claiming the company wasn't forthcoming about spam account data. The two parties are set to go to trial on October 17.
• This is one of several recent court filings from Musk's legal team, including subpoenas of the former head of consumer products at Twitter, Kayvon Beykpour, and former revenue product lead, Bruce Falck.
• Twitter has also requested information from several of Musk's associates, including entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, David Sacks, and Steve Jurvetson.
• The subpoenas come as former Twitter security chief and whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, alleged the company's executives aren't "incentivized to 'detect' or report total spam bots on the platform."

Sources: NPR Online News, Axios, New York Post, and FOX News.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Daily Star. Musk is completely in the right on this issue. While Twitter claims its userbase is comprised of only 5% spam accounts, a study reported by Reuters shows its percentage of fake accounts was 9% in 2017, and could be even higher today. Twitter has some explaining to do and Musk shouldn't be forced to purchase anything before the data is revealed.
• Narrative B, as provided by Verge. Jack Dorsey has been nothing but supportive of Musk throughout his turbulent Twitter purchase, so dragging his friend into this legal disaster is a particularly appalling move. His excuses for wanting to back out of this deal are weak, and his team is just throwing everything it can at the wall to see what sticks.