Elon Musk said early Tuesday morning the multi-billion dollar Twitter deal “cannot move forward” until the platform provides details about how many bot accounts exist.
Musk responded Tuesday to a tweet claiming “Musk may be looking for a better Twitter deal as $44 billion seems too high with 20% of users being fake or spam 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%.”
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
“This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
Musk then responded to a Twitter user who also questioned how many fake accounts exist.
“Considering that your this tweet is the most liked tweet of all time, which is only liked/interacted by 2-2.5% of the entire Twitter user base, there’s a high possibility that the number of fake/spam/bot accounts could be well over 50%,” a user tweeted in reference to an April tweet from Musk.
“Exactly,” Musk responded.
Twitter said it was still “committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable,” according to CNN.
The comment comes after Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal exchanged tweets Monday about the risk of spam accounts. Agrawal outlined how the company targets fake and spam Twitter accounts and said he does not think the company’s estimation “can be performed externally.”
Musk responded with a poop emoji.
Musk’s tweet reiterated a similar point he made Monday during a Miami conference in which he said buying Twitter at a lower price was “not out of the question” as his “concerns” grow, according to The New York Times (NYT). (RELATED: Elon Musk Doesn’t Think He’s Ever Voted Republican. He Says He Will In 2022)
“The more questions I ask, the more my concerns grow,” Musk reportedly said. “So you know, at the end of the day, acquiring it has to be fixable with a reasonable time frame and without revenues collapsing along the way.”
Musk also tweeted Friday that his deal to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Musk linked to a Reuters article that said Twitter estimates less than 5% of accounts are spam accounts. Musk later said he is “still committed to acquisition.”