Twitter executives push back against whistle-blower complaint.

Executives at Twitter pushed again on Wednesday towards what they mentioned was a “false” narrative being created round a former government’s allegations concerning the firm’s safety practices.

At its weekly companywide assembly, Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief government, addressed a whistle-blower criticism made by Peiter Zatko, the previous head of safety, who was fired in January. Mr. Zatko’s criticism, wherein he accused Twitter of mendacity about its safety practices and violating a 2011 settlement with the Federal Commerce Fee, was made public on Tuesday.

“This criticism that was filed yesterday is foundationally, technically and traditionally inaccurate,” Mr. Agrawal advised staff on the assembly, which The New York Instances listened to. “There are accusations in there with none proof and lots of factors made with out essential context.”

Different executives — together with Sean Edgett, the overall counsel — echoed Mr. Agrawal. The privateness and safety executives Damien Kieran and Lea Kissner spoke about enhancements the corporate had made to its safety.

“We have now by no means made a fabric misrepresentation to a regulator, to our board, to all of you,” Mr. Edgett mentioned. “We’re in full compliance with our F.T.C. consent decree.” He added that an exterior auditor critiques Twitter’s compliance with the decree each two years.

Mr. Kieran additionally disputed Mr. Zatko’s claims that Twitter’s infrastructure lacked safety, saying the corporate required staff to put in safety updates on their laptops and use bodily authentication keys and locked down entry to inner techniques after a 2020 hack.

“Peiter Mudge Zatko stands by each assertion within the disclosure statements and appears ahead to assembly with regulators to debate his allegations,” mentioned Debra Katz, a lawyer for Mr. Zatko. “Twitter’s efforts to smear him are pathetic and finally will likely be unavailing.”

Mr. Zatko is scheduled to testify about his disclosures on Sept. 13 earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On the assembly, Dalana Model, Twitter’s chief folks and variety officer, additionally mentioned the corporate’s elevated attrition price for the yr of about 18.3 %. She attributed it to “inner challenges” and the macroeconomic atmosphere. Twitter employed greater than 7,500 full-time staff on the finish of 2021.

A Twitter spokesman mentioned that worker attrition was taking place throughout the tech trade, pushed partially by the worldwide macroeconomic local weather, however that the corporate remained targeted on its enterprise and supporting its work power.

Mr. Zatko’s claims are set to be swept into Twitter’s lawsuit towards Elon Musk, who agreed in April to accumulate the social media firm for $44 billion however has since tried to desert the deal. Twitter is suing the billionaire in Delaware Chancery Court docket to power him to finish the acquisition.

Mr. Musk’s authorized group has seized on Mr. Zatko’s criticism as proof that Twitter has been deceptive folks concerning the variety of spam accounts on its platform. Mr. Musk has cited an absence of disclosure about spam accounts as a cause to terminate the deal.

In a listening to on Wednesday, legal professionals for Mr. Musk talked about Mr. Zatko’s criticism and requested a decide to require Twitter handy over extra details about its bots and spam. Twitter’s legal professionals mentioned the corporate had already offered all the information required to check its bot tally and argued that Mr. Musk’s requests for added information weren’t related to the case.

“There’s a whistle-blower criticism that has now been filed publicly that talks concerning the false data offered,” mentioned Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr. Musk. “He was one of many high handful of executives within the firm.”

The decide mentioned she would take into account the matter and subject a ruling later.