Court orders Twitter to give Elon Musk former exec's documents

Microblogging platform Twitter has been told to give Elon Musk documents from a former Twitter executive, who according to Musk was a key figure in calculating the number of fake accounts on the platform, according to a recent court order. 

Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery stated that "Twitter has been ordered to collect, review and produce documents from Kayvon Beykpour, former General Manager of Consumer Product". 

Beykpour joined Twitter in 2018 reporting to the then CEO Jack Dorsey. But his replacement, Parag Agrawal, fired Beykpour in May 2022, along with a few other executives. Beykpour tweeted that it was not his decision to leave the company.

According to a Bloomberg report, Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro said, “We look forward to reviewing Beykpour’s communications and will continue to seek information and witnesses until the full truth comes out.” 

Bot and spam accounts on Twitter have become the primary issue in the legal fight between Musk and Twitter, with the Tesla's chief executive accusing the latter of fraud for misrepresenting the number of real active users on its platform, which Twitter constantly denied.

With the October 17 trial date for Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk for trying to break up the $44 billion deal drawing closer, the pressure is on Musk, who as per the court order, must complete the acquisition of the social media company. Hence, his lawyers are trying to find something to shore up their arguments that Twitter committed fraud, as a report by Insider noted, “Musk is now looking to force Twitter to hand over more information on its user data and collection and methods of analysis.”

McCormick's decision gives Musk a partial win in the lawsuit, believe some. In the initial hearing between the two sides, McCormick sided with Twitter in agreeing that its case against Musk could proceed to trial by October.

Meanwhile, Musk sold almost $7 billion worth of Tesla shares last week, saying it was an effort to be prepared if he is ultimately ordered to acquire Twitter.

It is also interesting to note that just hours ago, Musk said in a tweet that he was buying British football club Manchester United but later clarified, he was joking about buying the struggling football team, leaving netizens confused.