ELON Musk has cast further doubt on his $44billion deal to buy Twitter due to questions over how many of its users are spambots.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the billionaire said the purchase “cannot move forward” until CEO Parag Agrawal provides evidence that fewer than five per cent of accounts are fake.
Musk, 50, wants more information about the real number of phoney accounts on the platform before snapping it up.
It follows Musk’s revelation last week that his purchase of Twitter is “temporarily on hold” as a result of the same issue.
He later clarified that he is “still committed to acquisition”.
The price of the company’s shares tumbled amid the confusion.
Spambots – autonomous accounts that send spam to a large number of users – are something that Twitter is well aware of.
In recent figures shared with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it estimated that fewer than five per cent of daily active users are bots.
On Sunday, Agrawal sparked a heated exchange with Musk regarding his concerns around spam on the platform.
He claimed that internal estimates are actually “well below” the reported five per cent, adding that he didn’t believe that the figure could be accurately investigated by a third party.
Musk responded with a single poo emoji.
In a tweet on Tuesday, he fleshed out his feedback, claiming that as many as 20 per cent of accounts might be fake.
“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” Musk wrote.
“Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
More to follow…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
