US judge orders Twitter to give ‘bot’ data from Beykpour fired by Agrawal

San Francisco, Aug 16

A US judge has ordered Twitter to "collect, review and produce documents" from Kayvon Beykpour -- the platform's former general manager for consumer who was fired by the company CEO Parag Agrawal in May -- and hand it over to Elon Musk's legal team.

Musk's legal team had asked the judge Kathleen St. Jude McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery that documents from 22 Twitter employees be handed over to them, who had direct information on the spam or "bot" accounts, reports Insider.

The judge has directed Twitter to hand over data of Beykpour only, who was a key executive at the micro-blogging platform, the report said late on Monday.

"Beykpour likely has insight and documentation regarding the bot analyses Musk is looking for," the report added.

Twitter is already handing over information from 41 so-called "custodians" of information as part of the legal battle (with Musk over his cancellation of the deal) that will begin on October 17.

After his sacking, a disappointed Beykpour had said that Agrawal asked him to leave because he wants to "take the team in a different direction".

Beykpour joined Twitter in 2018 under then CEO Jack Dorsey.

Musk had claimed that Twitter has refused to hand over all of the data information he's requested.

The Tesla CEO has said that if Twitter CEO Agrawal can prove the actual number of fake accounts, then the terminated deal can still move forward.

"If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they're confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms," Musk had tweeted.

"However, if it turns out that their Securities and Exchange Commission filings are materially false, then it should not," he added.

Amid the ongoing legal dispute, Musk has also challenged Agrawal to have a public debate on fake accounts and spam.

According to Musk, he was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement.

--IANS