Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter – but under certain conditions. The tech billionaire wants to know exactly how many fake accounts there are beforehand. After initial hesitation, the company wants to provide the information, according to a report.
According to a media report, the board of directors of Twitter wants to comply with the requests for information from the tech billionaire Elon Musk. Twitter will soon provide Musk with detailed data that will provide information about the number of false accounts in the short message service, the Washington Post reported, citing informed circles. Musk had made a $44 billion purchase offer for Twitter, but recently threatened to withdraw the offer.
Musk said on Monday that Twitter was in “a clear breach” of its “obligations under the merger agreement”. The company “actively” resisted requests for information about fake accounts on the online network. He sees this as a clear violation of the obligations under his takeover bid.
Musk makes the multi-billion dollar takeover dependent on the number of spam or fake accounts in the short message service. This involves so-called bots: computer programs that use algorithms to interact with users and pretend to be real people. According to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, less than 5 percent of accounts active on Twitter are bots.
However, the methodology used by the platform to capture these fake accounts is not “reasonable,” Musk said. He must carry out his “own analysis”. Some experts see Musk’s probing questions about the bots as a way to prepare for his early exit from the Twitter deal – or to push the takeover price down.
