Musk wins one, loses 21 more as judge denies access to numerous Twitter recordings

Enlarge / Elon Musk speaks during the 2020 Satellite Conference & Expo, March 9, 2020, in Washington, DC.

The judge in the Twitter/Elon Musk case gives Musk access to evidence from a former Twitter executive, but denied his request for documents from 21 other potential witnesses. As previously reported, Musk was seeking evidence from employees responsible for calculating spam count estimates and allegedly claimed that Twitter was hiding key witnesses.

In response, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick yesterday ruled that Twitter "is required to collect, review and produce material from Kayvon Beykpour", the recently fired head of the social media group. consumer products from Twitter. But Twitter "is under no obligation to collect, review, or produce materials from any other of the 22 additional repositories proposed by Defendants. . Beykpour."

Musk's request was part of his effort to refute Twitter's estimate that less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) are spam or fake.

Musk: Beykpour played a key role in spam estimation

Although Musk's letter detailing his request was filed under seal, his response to Twitter's lawsuit briefly mentioned Beykpour.

Musk accused Twitter of firing Beykpour while the merger was underway "without seeking consent from the Musk parties". Beykpour was fired in May after seven years on Twitter. CEO Parag Agrawal "asked me to leave after letting me know he wanted to take the team in a different direction," Beykpour wrote at the time.

Musk's response to Twitter's lawsuit said Beykpour "led all things consumer-related for Twitter and played a leading role in Twitter's investor calls. So he was one of the of Twitter executives whom Musk says was most intimately involved in how Twitter calculated its mDAU, how it suspended or moderated accounts on its platform, and how it determined there were always less than 5% spam or fake accounts in mDAU every day of every month of every quarter forever."

Twitter sued Musk after he tried to walk away from his commitment to buy the company for $44 billion. The lawsuit aims to force Musk to close the deal, and a trial is scheduled for October 17.

Musk's argument centers on his unproven claim that Twitter's spam count estimate is incorrect. Twitter says the estimate is accurate and that Musk has no right to opt out of the merger deal based on the number of spam accounts.