Elon Musk has launched legal action to summon Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) (Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)) co-founder Jack Dorsey to appear in court as the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) (Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)) boss battles to pull out of his $44bn bid for the social media giant.
Musk wants to terminate the deal, alleging the tech group failed to provide enough information on fake account numbers.
And in the latest twist, Musk has called on the former boss of Twitter to support his claims the social media company hasn't been honest about the volume of fake accounts on its platform, the BBC reported.
The case will be heard in Delaware, US, in October unless both parties decide to settle outside of court beforehand.
In July, the billionaire said he planned to walk away from his deal to buy Twitter, which prompted the company to sue him.
Dorsey stepped down as chief executive of Twitter in November last year and tweeted in support of Musk when he announced his bid to buy the company in April, saying: "Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."
Musk recently offloaded Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares amounting to US$6.9bn to avoid a potential Twitter fire sale.
The decision by Musk to subpoena Dorsey, who served two stints as CEO, is an interesting one given the two executives' history - both are big Bitcoin supporters and have been friends for years.
Aside from being praised by Dorsey, Musk has been described as an influential tweeter and invited to participate in Twitter discussions about product ideas.
Dorsey said in a 2019 interview he "loved" Musk and what he was trying to accomplish with Tesla and SpaceX, while Musk even interacted with employees via videochat about Twitter's bot issue during Twitter's company-wide retreat early 2020.
A more recent effort by the duo has been to make Twitter's content moderation and software decisions more transparent.
Musk and Dorsey have their differences, however, as Dorsey permanently banned former president Donald Trump from Twitter after the Capitol riot, although Dorsey delegated most of the moderation decisions to his legal deputy and questioned the ban later.
While Musk hasn't articulated a comprehensive content policy philosophy, he opposes "permanent bans" and said he would bring Trump back if he buys Twitter.