Judge Orders Twitter to Give Elon Musk Data on 9,000 Accounts Surveyed in Bot Audit Which it Had Sought to Deny

Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick ruled again today in a way that Elon Musk would consider to be favorable.

McCormick determined that Twitter must turn over information about 9,000 accounts it surveyed last year in a bot audit.

Twitter had sought to deny Musk access to this “historical snapshot” on privacy and other grounds and McCormick made it clear that the data must be treated carefully.

McCormick explained, “The historical-snapshot data that I have ordered produced is highly sensitive” and added that Musk’s lawyers agreed to “treat this data as highly confidential.”

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, celebrated the news in an emailed statement where he said, “We look forward to reviewing the data Twitter has been hiding for many months.”

The decision came after a Wednesday hearing where Musk’s lawyers accused their Twitter counterparts of stonewalling them on the bots information in pre-trial information exchanges.

One of Twitter’s lawyers worried about Musk’s propensity for sharing confidential data in some of his tweets at the hearing.

Twitter Attorney Bradley Wilson pointed out that the company was being asked to turn over user data to “someone who publicly mocked” the company and threatened to disclose its internal data.

While that part of the ruling was favorable, McCormick didn’t give Musk everything he wanted on the bots issue, as she deemed his demands for data, “absurdly broad.”

Previously, Twitter was ordered by McCormick to turn over documents to Musk on bot data from former exec Kayvon Beykpour.

Twitter Ordered By Judge to Turn Over Documents to Musk on Bot Data From Former Exec