Elon Musk Doubles Down On Twitter Bots, Says 'Deal Cannot Move Forward' Without Proof
One of Elon Musk's key concerns with Twitter, even before his whirlwind acquisition deal, was the platform's spam bot problem. This week it would appear that the false account issue just might stall the deal for a while, or kill it forever. The billionaire has tweeted that the deal cannot move forward until Twitter proves that the real number of spammy or fake accounts on the social media service.
Musk claims that Twitter has refused to show a proof of spam account being less than five percent of its net user base. The Tesla chief claims that he found percentage of shady accounts falling in the 20% ballpark. Musk's latest shenanigans have shed clouds of uncertainty over the deal, and has also stunned the industry with how publicly the squabble between him and the company is unfolding on Twitter itself.
Musk recently shared on Twitter that his team will select 100 accounts that follow his account, and will assess what percentage of those accounts are fake or bots. Of course, the random nature of the assessment drew criticism, but apparently, that's how Musk wants to get a real picture of the situation and has also encouraged others to do the same.
It's up to the spam accounts
The Tesla chief claims that his offer to purchase Twitter was based on the company's SEC filing, which allegedly mentioned that the percentage of spam accounts is five percent or lower, but the company hasn't shown tangible proof of that being the case. If Musk's latest words are to be taken at face value, he might pull out of the deal citing misleading disclosures by Twitter.
Experts claim that this is one of Musk's tactics to strong-arm his way into lowering the deal's final value of roughly $44 billion. Musk himself has expressed similar intentions. As per a Bloomberg report, he recently remarked at an event that lowering the price "won't be out of the question." "You can't pay the same price for something that is much worse than they claimed," Musk was quoted as saying by the Economic Times.
Musk's latest bombshell comes merely days after he claimed that the Twitter deal was on hold owing to the uncertainty around the spam account disclosure, but he quickly replied that he was still committed to the acquisition. A few days ago, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tried to offer some clarity on the bot situation, and how the company tries to tackle the menace. Musk, on the other hand, replied with a poop emoji on the last tweet of the thread.