Elon Musk – Twitter’s Parag Agarwal and Others Destroyed Evidence; A Morbid Tale of ‘The Burnt Notebooks’

On October 4, 2022, The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of Twitter shares following reports on a likely new takeover offer for Twitter by Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, there has been a significant controversy blowing Twitter’s way as Elon Musk accused the management of the company of hiding its missteps and ordering Pieter Zatko, Twitter‘s ex-head of security, to destroy related evidence.

Musk said that Pieter Zatco (the whistle-blower) was ordered to burn ten handwritten notebooks and delete 100 computer files by the management of the company and was part of a $7.8 million severance package. 

The above came into light as October 3 court filings that were unsealed on Monday. The filings show that the books contained notes of Pieter Zatco’s meetings with the company’s counterparts during his one-year-long tenure as security chief of the company.

The major embarrassment for Twitter is even as Musk claimed that Twitter misled him regarding a variety of operational issues faced by the social media platform, which led to Musk’s backing out of the $44bilion acquisition. However, the billionaire then had a change of decision last week and agreed to the purchase of Twitter for the initial share price of $54.20.

Musk’s Lawyers argued in court that despite Twitter’s attempt to buy Zatco’s silence, it failed; however, Twitter managed to achieve its secondary objective of ensuring that Zatco’s supporting evidence would never see the light of day.

Twitter and its ‘Shady Operations’

Twitter, on its part, did not come out with any response to Musk’s claims in filing.

However, Twitter alleged that it fired Pieter Zatco because of his poor performance and has also claimed that “a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.”

Elon Musk and his “Shady Operations”

• Previously, Elon Musk, in his stealth approach, quietly started to buy Twitter shares; he was then offered a seat on the company’s board, which he accepted.
• However, he changed his mind a day later and instead offered to buy Twitter out. 
• Twitter resisted and then later accepted the proposal before Musk decided to back out.
• Twitter Sued Elon Musk
• And now Elon Musk is set to go ahead with buying Twitter – leaving the whole world in a tizzy of yes, no, and yes again!

Deleted Files and Burnt Notebooks Saga – 

As known of the latest controversy, security head Peiter Zatko, after being sacked from his job, filed complaints with the FTC, SEC, and DoJ and alleged “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in Twitter’s protections against hackers. 

Not to be cast for his poor decision-making skills, Musk quickly took to this as a reason not to proceed with the purchase, despite that he had signed a waiver, giving up his due diligence rights.

The result – led to a Senate investigation that is probing if the alleged failings can threaten national security through fake tweets that politicians and world leaders apparently issued.

Kanye West and his Tweet – 

For those who don’t know, Kanye West, who now goes by the name Ye – is an American rapper who made major headlines due to his ‘antisemitic’ tweet. There is enough speculation as to how his tweet would have been handled under Musk’s ownership of Twitter.

Musk has frequently made it clear he thinks that Twitter should be open to free speech, leading many to believe that tweets such as those of Ye – might be permitted under his management. 

Back to Allegations & Parag Agarwal

Zatko claims that he warned Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal of significant privacy and computer security concerns related to the social media platform’s operations that amounted to violations of agreements the company had made with government regulators. Additionally, he claimed that his Twitter coworkers had little interest in investigating the matter of how many spam and robot accounts were among the more than 230 million customers of the company.

Elon Musk Controversies, yet CEO of 4 Firms

Elon Musk is not new to having controversies surrounding him; he has been accused of having a toxic work culture at the businesses he runs. Racism and sexism have been the talking points in almost all businesses he operates. 

• In June, Fifteen former and current Black employees at Musk-owned Tesla filed a lawsuit against the electric-car maker on the grounds of racial discrimination
• In 2018, SpaceX — the aerospace company started by Musk — allegedly paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual-misconduct claim against Musk.

In Fact, Musk’s personal life is also controversial and generates a kind of frenzy reserved only for movie stars. At the same time, his professional stunts leave the corporate world and the stock markets’ scratching their heads.

Elon Musk, The Case Study

A Transformational Leadership

However, Musk will have to be given his due, for he has the capacity and the ability to bounce back from just about any controversy thrown his way.

Many in the corporate world are left stunned because of his unpredictable character and yet boasting of a transformational leadership style.

The fact that no one can predict which way he will roll – has led many to analyse, research and make case studies of his leadership style.

Musk’s innovations in space travel & clean energy make him an iconic leader among electric-car enthusiasts, space lovers, and tech geeks. Everything that Musk does is about challenging the traditional way of doing business.

However, as most accept, he is exceptionally intelligent, much ahead of his times compared to most leaders. 

Musk and his Iconic Standing 

The controversies Elon Musk faces, the tension he builds, the avid base of fans and allies, and the growing number of enemies only add to his legend.

Forget A-List Hollywood stars; Musk provides as much fodder and awe as the lives of the ‘Wives Of Hollywood’.

What Musk does is bring a particular punch in the way corporate leadership go; the uncertainty of his decisions and the unique individual he has may have a fan base as the number of people who stand on the opposite side of him.

One may not agree, and yet one cannot disagree that despite everything, he is the CEO of the world’s most innovative companies.

Conclusion – Twitter and Elon Musk’s battle is being fought on a level subject to the court’s decision. 

For now, Twitter wants to handle this controversial hide-up in the most effective manner it can.

Elon Musk is probably looking to buy the company at a lesser valuation, perhaps harping on the ‘burned notebooks’ controversy to give him some mileage. 

For Parag Agarwal, CEO of Twitter, this is highly embarrassing and requires him to handle the controversy in a manner that saves not only the company’s brand value but also his own.

For Case Studies, this latest controversy is an educational research paper.

For Corporate management, this is an excellent example of how not to make poor decisions.

For us, the news gatherers, this entire episode is as interesting as watching a Tennis game and seeing who wins the round, the set and the game!

Edited by Prakriti Arora