Twitter paid whistleblower $7 million for silence: lawyer

Twitter Inc paid a whistleblower who raised questions about operational problems within the social media platform $7 million to secure his silence, according to a lawyer for Elon Musk.

The payment was mentioned in passing at a September 6 hearing in the lawsuit between Twitter and Musk over his attempts to cancel a $44 billion purchase of the company. People familiar with the matter confirmed the reference was to a payment to whistle-blower Peiter Zatko.

Twitter representatives Thursday declined to comment about the payment to Zatko, the company's former head of security.