Elon Musk could be angling for a lower Twitter bid after it emerged that he had put the takeover on hold. Musk said that fake and spam accounts could make up more than 20 percent of Twitter users, in contradiction with the company’s filings.
The Tesla Boss said that the bid would not move forward until the company proves the accuracy of its earlier estimate of five percent or less bots and fake accounts.
“20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be much higher,” Musk tweeted.
“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
Read: Elon Musk Hints at Charging Commercial, Gov’t Organizations to use Twitter
The business mogul also addressed the issue during a conference in Miami.
“Currently what I’m being told is that there’s just no way to know the number of bots,” said Musk. “It’s like, as unknowable as the human soul.”
The world’s richest man is currently in the process of acquiring the bird app in a highly publicized $44 billion.
Twitter has however said that it is “committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable.”
Read also: Voters are not Cows; Junet, Sakaja Trade Barbs on Twitter
Musk has however expressed that a lower deal is not out of the question, pending the accurate report on bots and fake accounts. He had a public spat with Twitter CEO Parag Aggrawal who provided information on the number of spam accounts suspended by Twitter each day, as well as how the team detects them.
“We don’t believe this specific estimation can be performed externally, given the critical need to use both public and private information (which we can’t share).” Aggrawal tweeted, to which Musk responded with an emoji.
Musk further added that advertisers were disadvantaged due to the lack of inaccurate bot accounts reports.
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