Twitter lawyers this week issued a subpoena to halo privacy Inc. in Lynnwood, Washington, requesting the social media company to provide documents and information on the lawsuit filed against Elon Musk for attempting to terminate its $44 billion acquisition agreement.
Geekwire obtained subpoenas and related exhibits from the public documents of King County Superior Court in Seattle, seeking halo privacy’s communications and other records – mainly focusing on robots, spam or fake accounts on twitter, including any relevant analysis of Companies in Seattle.
Musk tried to cancel the agreement to buy the San Francisco based company, and he questioned the robots and fake accounts disclosed by twitter.
Among other requests, Twitter’s subpoena against halo privacy seeks documents and information about any agreements, agreements or arrangements between the company and musk, his consultants or data scientists.
Halo privacy, founded in 2015, does not seem to be publicly linked to musk or his previous dispute with Twitter. Halo’s privacy representative has not responded to geekwire’s request for comment.
According to the company’s website, it provides “high-quality privacy solutions tailored for C-suite, board of directors, family offices and ultra-high net worth people” and “platinum services and technologies for the most picky and demanding privacy customers”. It also provides a Linux based device for private collaboration and messaging.
Kevin Kelly, CEO of halo privacy, gave the company’s motto in his LinkedIn profile: “your secret, keep it secret”.
The submission of the document in Seattle comes as a series of activities emerged in the larger controversy this week, including the accusation of whistleblowing by former twitter security leader peiter zatko, which may allow musk to succeed; The Delaware judge Kathleen McCormick’s ruling basically rejected Musk’s request for discovery, including what some judges called “absurdly broad”
The trial is scheduled to take place in the Delaware equity Court on October 17. The king’s County High Court subpoena on Halo privacy was issued in conjunction with the Delaware lawsuit.
Part of the subpoena focuses on Musk’s specific claims – looking for any documents, communications or supporting materials owned by halo privacy that are related to the tweets of the founders of SpaceX and Tesla, such as this one.
In addition, the subpoena lists six news articles, looking for materials related to any communication from media, representatives, websites or social media platforms related to these or other articles.
Do spam bots really account for less than 5% of Twitter users? Elon Musk wants to know – Reuters, May 13
Musk said that it is “not impossible” to buy twitter at a lower price – Bloomberg, May 16
Elon Musk said that without clarifying the false account, the twitter transaction could not proceed. Wall Street Journal, May 17
Exclusive: Musk’s Twitter transaction threat brings ice a new source of financing – Reuters, June 7
Elon Musk interview full text – Bloomberg, June 21
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is in jeopardy — Washington Post, July 7
The subpoena also required halo privacy to have any information or communication about the tweets released by cyabra, a Tel Aviv technology company, on May 17. The company told musk that it was estimated that 13.7% of the twitter accounts were fake.