Without citing a source, Musk claimed in
Tweet that Twitter is “20% fake/spam accounts” and suggested that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Twitter profiles were misleading. The company said that less than 5% of its daily active users are from spam accounts.
“Based my presentation on the accuracy of the SEC filings on Twitter,” Musk wrote in a tweet. “Yesterday, the CEO of Twitter publicly declined to show proof of <5%. Can't move forward with this deal until he does."
Musk’s latest tweet appears to cast doubt on the $44 billion deal. Musk announced on Friday that he is “temporarily suspended” but “remains committed to the acquisition.” This hub from Musk has fueled speculation that the world’s richest man may be using the bot debate to secure a better price for Twitter, either as a negotiating tactic or
out of necessity.
Twitter shares were down 1.7% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. The stock erased all of its gains in the weeks since Musk announced his stake in the company and is now trading at $36.80 a share — well below Musk’s offer price of $54.20 a share.
On Monday, exchange a
Tweet thread With Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on the spam account issue.
Twitter (TWTR) Commenting “More than half a million spam accounts every day,” Agrawal
books. He also repeated the 5% statistic,
say This estimate is based on “multiple human reviews… of thousands of accounts” sampled randomly. Twitter has
previously approved that while his estimates are believed to be “reasonable,” the measurements have not been independently verified and the actual number of fake accounts or spam could be higher.
Agrawal’s initial 13 tweet was met with a response from Musk that reflected the extraordinary and extremely adorable nature of the online deal:
stool emoji.
I follow Musk with a somewhat more thoughtful question. “So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money?” musk
Requested “This is fundamental to Twitter’s financial health,” he added.
Musk did it over and over again
I spoke out against bots and spam accounts On Twitter, he once described crypto-spam bots as “the single most annoying problem” with the platform. Anyone familiar with the responses to Musk’s tweets knows that they are littered with such scams, many of which are trying to take advantage of Musk’s name.
“The bots issue at the end of the day … looks to us more like a ‘dog ate homework’ excuse to save a Twitter deal or talk about a lower price,” said Dan Ives and John Katsingris, analysts at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note on Monday.
In his Twitter thread, Agrawal said most Twitter spam campaigns use a combination of humans and automation, rather than being primarily driven by bots. He said analysis through legitimate and fake accounts can be complicated.
“The tough challenge is that many of the accounts that appear to be outwardly fake — are actually real people,” he said.
She said. “And some of the spam accounts that are actually the most dangerous – and cause the most harm to our users – can appear completely legitimate on the surface.”
Agrawal
She said Twitter has been in contact with Musk regarding the spam issue.
“We shared an overview of the appraisal process with Elon a week ago and look forward to continuing to speak with him and all of you,” he added.
“Infuriatingly humble alcohol fanatic. Unapologetic beer practitioner. Analyst.”
