A federal magistrate judge has ordered Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg to provide a sworn declaration explaining why so few messages from WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram have been produced in the WP Engine case, calling allegations that relevant communications were deleted “concerning.”
The order follows a joint discovery dispute filed on April 10, in which WP Engine accused Mullenweg of destroying messages relevant to the legal dispute. The company said he had produced just 40 Telegram messages, one Signal message, and no WhatsApp messages, despite his use of those platforms.
WP Engine also alleged that Mullenweg deleted posts from the WordCamp Sydney and WordPress.org X accounts, a channel in Post Status Slack, and plugin reviews on WordPress.org.
Automattic disputed those claims, stating that thousands of communications had been produced across multiple sources, including emails, iMessages, Telegram messages, and screenshots of Post Status Slack and direct messages on X. The company said no “relevant or responsive” WhatsApp messages were found after a “reasonable” search.
In his ruling, Magistrate Judge Ajay Krishnan, who is overseeing discovery in the case, found that WP Engine “plausibly contends” Mullenweg “deleted relevant documents or allowed such documents to be deleted after an obligation to preserve was triggered.” He described the allegations, taken together, as “concerning,” and said Automattic’s response was “unsatisfying.”
The court noted that Automattic’s response didn’t address WP Engine’s allegations relating to deleted X posts, a Post Status Slack channel, and WordPress.org plugin reviews.
“Defendants discuss the various categories of Mullenweg custodial documents that they did produce. But, of course, in a case of alleged spoliation, what matters is what was allegedly deleted or left unpreserved. And Defendants’ response appears to elide that topic,” Krishnan wrote.
Court filings show WP Engine issued preservation demands to Automattic before filing its lawsuit in October 2024 and later asked the company to produce communications from multiple messaging platforms. By October 2025, WP Engine had received only a small number of Telegram messages and no WhatsApp or Signal messages.
At the time, Automattic’s lawyers certified in a court filing that Mullenweg’s “responsive Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp communications … either have been (with respect to Telegram) or will be (with respect to Signal and WhatsApp) produced.” A production of Mullenweg’s files, completed earlier this month, contained just one Signal message, zero WhatsApp messages, and no additional Telegram messages.
WP Engine argued that result was “not credible,” pointing to a September 2024 X post in which Mullenweg invited people to contact him via “Signal with disappearing messages” at the onset of what he characterized as his “nuclear war” against WP Engine.
Automattic’s lawyers called the allegations a “manufactured controversy,” stating that Mullenweg had not enabled ephemeral messaging features and that all “responsive, non-privileged” materials had been produced.
Krishnan noted that Automattic’s statement didn’t address WP Engine’s argument that third parties could have enabled disappearing messages when contacting Mullenweg. He also said it was unclear how WP Engine could identify individuals who responded to Mullenweg’s public invitation to use Signal before the lawsuit was filed, and pointed to a carve-out in Automattic’s briefing for “communications (prior to this lawsuit being filed)” as a potentially “significant concession.”
The court ordered Mullenweg or his legal team to submit a sworn declaration detailing his use of WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram for relevant communications, the steps taken to preserve messages, whether auto-delete or disappearing features were used, date ranges for preserved and deleted messages, and what happened to direct messages on X and Post Status Slack that Automattic lawyers said they had captured.
The declaration must also address alleged disappearing Signal messages, deleted X posts, a deleted Post Status Slack channel, and removed WordPress.org plugin reviews cited in the dispute.
Post Status and WordCamp Sydney
WP Engine’s allegations extend beyond private messages to deleted public and community communications, including posts from the WordCamp Sydney X account and a channel in Post Status Slack.
Post Status, founded in 2013, is a Slack-based community for WordPress professionals where Mullenweg was an active participant for many years before leaving the platform on December 11, 2024, as reported by 404 Media.
Following the news that the court had granted WP Engine’s preliminary injunction, Mullenweg clashed with members in the #community channel before changing his username to “gone 💀.” He asked Yoast founder Joost de Valk, then a minority shareholder in Post Status, to delete his account and personal data, citing EU law and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
He was directed to a deactivation request page, after which his account was removed.
In a separate incident, The Repository reported in October 2024 that WP Engine had been banned from sponsoring WordCamps, including WordCamp Sydney. Our report originally included an embedded X post from the WordCamp Sydney account stating that WP Engine’s logo had been removed from the event website without organizer approval. The post was later deleted from X.
Disclosure: WP Engine and Automattic-owned Pressable are sponsors of The Repository.