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Entrepreneur Elon Musk insisted Monday that the Twitter deal will not move forward until it is proven that fake users represent less than 5%. He maintained that his offer was based on Twitter’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings being accurate.
Musk highlighted that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has refused to publicly show data demonstrating the number of fake users. “This deal cannot move forward until he does,” Musk commented on Twitter.
Musk was responding to another user’s comment alleging that the percentage of fake accounts could be as high as 50%. “Twitter claims less than 5% of their users are fake/spam/bots. It seems like that number is at least 4-5x more. The lowest estimate is ~20% of their users are fake/spam accounts,” wrote Pranay Pathole.
Elon Musk’s deal pause
After Twitter claimed that fake accounts account for about 5% of its users, Elon Musk posted a tweet informing that the deal for the full purchase of the social network was put temporarily on hold while the company verifies the true proportion of spam users is.
Hours later, Musk clarified that he remains “committed” to acquiring the platform. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Twitter shares fell nearly 20% between one tweet and the next, and recovered ground after Musk’s clarification.
According to a Reuters report, sources close to Twitter claim that, although the company considers that Musk’s tweet pausing the deal was derogatory, the subsequent clarification that the commitment remains in place encouraged them to continue.
