Tesla CEO Elon Musk accused Twitter of jeopardizing its third-largest market over litigation against the Indian government. In its countersuit filed on July 29, Musk said Twitter not only failed to disclose litigation against the Indian government, but it also failed to obtain consent under the Merger Agreement.
Twitter moved Karnataka High Court on July 6 challenging the Centre's blocking orders against 39 tweets and accounts several of which contained political and journalistic content.
Twitter replied and said Tesla CEO Elon Musk's counterclaims failed to justify his plan to dishonour the merger agreement while offering an entirely new set of excuses for his breach.
Twitter was responding to Musk's countersuit in the ongoing legal battle between the two.
Twitter and Elon Musk are locked in a bitter legal battle after the Tesla CEO backed out from the merger deal over alleged misrepresentation of spam and fake accounts. The battle intensified after the Tesla CEO filed a countersuit against Twitter saying he was "hoodwinked" into signing a US $44 billion merger agreement.
A week later, Twitter on August 4 filed its reply saying the counterclaims were nothing more than "a made-for litigation tale that is contradicted by the evidence and common sense."
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery has directed an expedited five-day trial beginning October 17 to determine whether Musk can back out of the deal.
Also Read: Elon Musk Files Countersuit In Legal Battle Against Twitter Over $44Bn Deal
Not subject to any probe by the Indian government: Twitter
Twitter's July 6 plea before the Karnataka High Court challenging the Indian government's blocking orders was consistent with its global practice of challenging unauthorized or procedurally deficient government requests or laws, the social media platform said responding to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's countersuit.
Twitter denied Tesla CEO Elon Musk's allegations that its high court plea was related to any "investigation" by the Indian government. The social media platform said India was not its third largest market and denied claims that the high court the plea—challenging the blocking orders—was "risky".
Twitter further submitted that initiating the litigation against the Indian government did not require Musk's consent.
In his countersuit, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also said Twitter's move to challenge India's blocking orders was a departure from the ordinary course because in the past, the microblogging site followed government-imposed obligations, including blocking pro-Ukrainian accounts for the Russian government.
To which, Twitter said its challenge to certain blocking orders by the Indian government was consistent with its global practice to challenge unauthorized requests. "Twitter further avers that, in its continuing effort to make its services available to people everywhere, if it receives a valid and appropriately scoped request from an authorized entity, it may withhold access to certain content in the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local laws…," the reply said.
"…but that it routinely pushes for limitations on, objects to, or otherwise challenges government requests or laws where such requests are not authorized or properly scoped under local law, are procedurally deficient, or as necessary to defend its users' rights," it added.
Also Read: Centre Wanted to Block Political, Journalistic Content: Twitter to HC
Elon Musk counterclaims on miscounting of spam accounts incorrect: Twitter
Twitter said Tesla CEO Elon Musk's counterclaims failed to justify his plan to dishonour the merger agreement and offer an entirely new set of excuses for his breach.
Twitter was responding to Musk's countersuit in the ongoing legal battle between the two.
In his countersuit, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said when his representatives began to peel the onion of false and spam accounts, two things became abundantly clear: First, Twitter was miscounting the number of false and spam accounts on its platform to mislead investors; Second, while Twitter repeatedly touted monetizable daily active users (mDAU) as a "key metric" for revenue growth, it is not as closely tied to revenue as Twitter leads the public to believe.
To this, Twitter said Elon Musk's claims of miscounting spam accounts are incorrect. "When Musk offered to buy Twitter, he did not ask for—and Twitter did not make—any representations regarding the number of false or spam accounts," the microblogging website's reply read.
"The merger agreement does not contain a single reference to false or spam accounts. Nor did Musk ask Twitter for any information to "verify" the number of false or spam accounts before he entered into the merger agreement. To the contrary, Musk forwent all due diligence—giving Twitter twenty-four hours to accept his take-it-or leave-it offer before he would present it directly to Twitter's stockholders," it added.
"Musk invents representations Twitter never made and then tries to wield, selectively, the extensive confidential data Twitter provided him to conjure a breach of those purported representations," Twitter said.
Twitter said it complied with terms in the merger agreement; Musk's counterclaims, based as they are on distortion, misrepresentation, and outright deception, change nothing.
Musk signed and is obligated to consummate the merger agreement, Twitter said.
Also Read: Indian Govt Ordered Over 7,700 Takedowns Of Twitter Content Since 2019