In April, Elon Musk entered into a legally binding deal to acquire the tech giant for $44 billion (£35 billion). However, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has threatened to withdraw unless Twitter offers more information regarding the number of fraudulent accounts on the social media network.
In April, Mr. Musk reached a legally binding agreement to acquire the tech behemoth for $44 billion (£35 billion).
However, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has threatened to withdraw unless Twitter gives more data on the number of fraudulent accounts on the social media platform.
Without providing evidence, the world’s richest man has asserted that Twitter has grossly understated the amount of “spam bots” – artificial accounts that generally promote frauds and falsehoods – on its platform.
Last month, he stated that the acquisition was temporarily on hold because he wanted to confirm the company’s claims that less than 5 percent of user accounts were not run by humans.
He then voiced his support for obtaining a bid discount proportional to the proportion of users who are spam bots.
Mr. Musk, who claims to devote less than 5 percent of his time to the takeover, asserted in a May tweet, without offering evidence, that at least 20 percent of Twitter accounts are fake.
He criticized Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal for publicly refusing “to offer proof” that less than 5% of accounts were “fake/spam” and noted that he was “worried that Twitter has a disincentive to eliminate spam, as it affects the number of perceived daily users.”
The Washington Post was the first to disclose that Twitter intended to grant Mr. Musk complete access to the firehose. Other sources indicated that the billionaire may only have limited access.
The apparent offer from Twitter could hinder his efforts to utilize the spam bot issue to cast doubt on the future of the arrangement.
On Monday, his attorneys accused the firm of refusing to provide the actual number of bot accounts.
In addition, Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, indicated that his office would investigate Twitter for allegedly neglecting to reveal the size of its spam bot and phony accounts, as well as “potentially misleading reporting” of bots.
False social media accounts have been an issue for some years.
Advertisers base their spending decisions on the number of users offered by social media networks.
Additionally, spam bots are employed to amplify messages and disseminate misinformation.
