Elon Musk Says Twitter Acquisition 'Cannot Move Forward'

Billionaire Elon Musk just tweeted that hia Tiwtter acquisition "can't move forward" until he gets more transparency on bot numbers.

Elon Musk Says Twitter Acquisition ‘Cannot Move Forward’

Billionaire Elon Musk may not be going through with his Twitter acquisition after all.

Last month, the Tesla CEO and the Twitter board of directors agreed to let Musk purchase the social media company for $44 billion dollars. He had previously tested Twitter board chair, Bret Taylor, with an offer of $54.20 per share.

However, it seems that Musk is starting to get nervous about the number of what he assumes to be bot accounts since he tweeted last week that the deal was temporarily on hold.

Elon Musk Says Twitter Acquisition Is ‘Temporarily On Hold’

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

Last Friday, Musk tweeted, “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”

He attached a link to a Reuters article that was based on a recent Twitter regulatory finding that calculated the revenue generated by active accounts. The filing estimated how many of its “monetizable daily active users” were perceived to be either bot or spam amounts. 229 million Twitter users were subject to advertising in Twitter’s first quarter, so five percent of those users would amount to 11.45 million.

Notably, the article is talking about how many users receive advertising, not the total body of active Twitter users, which one source estimated at around 400 million.

Many were quick to criticize the SpaceX founder, giving him a convenient “out” of his deal to buy Twitter, especially since he’s been facing criticism for selling off his Tesla shares in order to do it. However, on early Tuesday morning, Musk seemed to double down on his stance.

Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’

20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022

On Monday, Teslarati released an article speculating “Elon Musk may be looking for a better Twitter deal as $44 billion seems too high with 20& of users being fake or spam accounts.”

On Tuesday morning, just after 3:30 AM ET, Musk commented, “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.”

“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” he added. “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”

Musk seems to be calling out Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal, who released a lengthy Twitter thread on Monday afternoon discussing spam with “the benefit of data, facts, and context…”

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal Sets The Record Straight On Spam Accounts

Next, spam isn’t just ‘binary’ (human / not human). The most advanced spam campaigns use combinations of coordinated humans + automation. They also compromise real accounts, and then use them to advance their campaign. So – they are sophisticated and hard to catch.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 16, 2022

On Monday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal launched into a lengthy Twitter thread, saying, “Let’s talk about spam. And let’s do so with the benefit of data, facts, and context…”

“First, let me state the obvious: spam harms the experience for real people on Twitter, and therefore can harm our business,” he began. “As such, we are strongly incentivized to detect and remove as much spam as we possibly can, every single day. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just wrong.”

The hard challenge is that many accounts which look fake superficially – are actually real people. And some of the spam accounts which are actually the most dangerous – and cause the most harm to our users – can look totally legitimate on the surface.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 16, 2022

“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter,” he continued. “We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam – if they can’t pass human verification challenges (captchas, phone verification, etc).”

“Our team updates our systems and rules constantly to remove as much spam as possible, without inadvertently suspending real people or adding unnecessary friction for real people when they use Twitter: none of us want to solve a captcha every time we use Twitter,” he added.

The use of private data is particularly important to avoid misclassifying users who are actually real. FirstnameBunchOfNumbers with no profile pic and odd tweets might seem like a bot or spam to you, but behind the scenes we often see multiple indicators that it’s a real person.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 16, 2022

He insisted, “Our actual internal estimates for the last four quarters were all well under 5% – based on the methodology outlined above. The error margins on our estimates give us confidence in our public statements each quarter.”

“There are LOTS of details that are very important underneath this high-level description,” he concluded. “We shared an overview of the estimation process with Elon a week ago and look forward to continuing the conversation with him, and all of you.”