Elon Musk says Twitter will take legal action against a 'disgruntled employee' who the CEO says leaked false information to suggest his tweets were boosted

• Elon Musk said Twitter was taking legal action against a worker who the CEO said leaked false info.
• He said the worker was the source of a Platformer report, which said Musk's tweets had been boosted.

Elon Musk said Twitter would take legal action against an employee who he said was the source of a Platformer report that said Musk's tweets had been artificially boosted.

Platformer reported Wednesday, citing engineers, that Musk asked 80 Twitter engineers to find ways to promote his tweets after President Joe Biden's tweet about the Super Bowl received more engagement than his own.

A Twitter user asked Musk on Friday whether the Platformer report was false.

Musk replied: "The 'source' of the bogus Platformer article is a disgruntled employee who had been on paid time off for months, had already accepted a job at Google and felt the need to poison the well on the way out. Twitter will be taking legal action against him."

He did not name the employee against whom he said Twitter was taking legal action.

Casey Newton, a journalist at Platformer, told Insider: "Elon's tweet is completely false. We stand by our reporting."

Musk sent Twitter staff an email in December that threatened to sue employees who leaked confidential information to the media and told them they had to sign a pledge saying they understood, Platformer's Zoë Schiffer tweeted. A person familiar with the matter confirmed to Insider that Musk had sent the email.

The CEO tweeted Friday that multiple major media sources had incorrectly reported his tweets had been boosted above normal levels. He said a review of his tweets over the past six months showed the reports were false.

"We did have a bug that briefly caused replies to have the same prominence as primary Tweets, but that has now been fixed," Musk, who has 129 million Twitter followers, tweeted.

Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In its story, Platformer reported Musk's tweet about the Super Bowl garnered more than 9 million impressions, while Biden's tweet about the game got nearly 29 million impressions. Musk highlighted there was an issue with engagement across the platform, the publication reported. Musk wanted engineers to fix it and his deputies said they would lose their jobs if they didn't, it added.

Another Platformer article, which was published on February 9, reported that sources said Musk had fired a Twitter engineer who told him he was declining in popularity on the site.

Since Musk took over Twitter in October, he has fired some employees after they criticized him and laid off thousands of people overall.