It's hard to tell. Given that DDG signed a confidentially agreement barring discussion, the "employee mentioning on twitter" might have been the only feasible way to get the information out.

That said, this has been going on a while, and it seems more likely that DDG was fine with keeping it secret and the employee was probably acting independently.

I think the fact the DDG signed the confidentiality agreement willingly does not speak well of their overall priorities.

that screenshot tweet is DDG founder/ceo, so not just “some employee”

agree that official announcement would be better though