Amid his escalating legal fight with social media organisation Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has subpoenaed his friend and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, The Guardian reported. Musk is trying to back out of his $44bn agreement to acquire the social media platform, and the subpoena was updated in a court document on Monday.
Dorsey was a big supporter of Musk’s initial acquisition attempt of Twitter. In a tweet, he had written a few months back: “Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is “maximally trusted and broadly inclusive” is the right one. This is also @paraga’s [Parag Agarwal] goal, and why I chose him. Thank you both for getting the company out of an impossible situation. This is the right path...I believe it with all my heart.”
Dorsey is the CEO of payments company Block, formerly known as Square. He was the CEO of Twitter from 2015 to 2021. He remains on the board of the company. Dorsey made his thoughts known in a series of tweets. He had written: “In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”
“The idea and service are all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step,” Dorsey wrote. “I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness,” he added.
Musk had indicated earlier this month that he wants to back away from the acquisition deal, prompting Twitter to file a lawsuit to hold him to what it describes as a seller-friendly agreement. With an October trial looming, Musk’s attorneys had told the judge Tuesday that Twitter has refused to begin producing certain categories of documents that are plainly "relevant and easily collected and produced". He said Twitter lawyers instead have claimed that several categories of documents are not relevant, without identifying them.
The documents sought by Musk's attorneys include Twitter board minutes and related materials, advertising sales and metrics, and manuals and policies regarding Monetizable Daily Active Usage or Users, or mDAU. That is a metric that Twitter uses to measure the number of people or organizations using its platform.
Musk has claimed that Twitter has failed to provide him enough information about the number of fake accounts on its service, but the company has estimated for the past several years that fewer than five per cent of mDAU are spam or fake accounts.
