Tesla CEO Elon Musk has declared his Twitter buyout "cannot move forward" until the social media site verifies the number of bots on the platform.
Musk had previously somewhat vaguely declared the deal was "temporarily on hold" until he confirmed that less than 5% of accounts were false or spam accounts, as per Twitter's estimations.
Hesitating even more, however, Musk today tweeted that "Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%," adding that "this deal cannot move forward until he does".
20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022
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.
Musk said his own research deduced that Twitter had 20% fake or spam accounts but claimed that "could be much higher", and his offer was based on Twitter's numbers being accurate.
The "public refusal" to give proof likely referred to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal's series of tweets yesterday (May 16) that defended Twitter's justification for the less than 5% number.
"Let’s talk about spam. And let’s do so with the benefit of data, facts, and context..." Agrawal said, going on to give a number of methods of spam detection and removal that Twitter uses. "Our actual internal estimates for the last four quarters were all well under 5%."
💩
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2022
Musk replied to the explanation with the poop emoji and, in a user poll that asked if he's being honest (in which 50% of people said no", Musk replied again saying "interesting".
Announcing the buyout was on hold on May 13 was the first hesitation Musk had displayed since his offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion was accepted on April 25.
Musk had otherwise been incredibly vocal and public about the deal, including his plans for the company, meaning the hesitation tweets were in significant contrast to his and Twitter's previous attitude over the buyout.
The social media giant's founder Jack Dorsey called Musk "the singular solution I trust" in a series of tweets celebrating the sale.
Thumbnail image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
