Whistleblower claims may not free Elon Musk from his Twitter hook

A court in Delaware will decide whether the Tesla chief can back out of his $44bn offer to buy the platform

As the Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko was telling US lawmakers of egregious" security failings at the company last Tuesday, shareholders in the social media platform overwhelmingly voted to hand those problems over to someone else: Elon Musk.

It is unlikely that the Tesla CEO, who owns more than 9% of Twitter and agreed to buy the company in April, was among the 99% of voting shareholders who backed that $44bn (38.5bn) deal, given he is now determined to abandon it. A Delaware judge will decide at a trial beginning on 17 October whether Musk gets to walk away, or be forced to acquire the business on the terms that he had agreed upon.