Elon Musk says Twitter deal ‘cannot move forward’ until it proves bot numbers

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

The deal to acquire the social media company cannot move forward until it is proven that fake accounts make up more than 20 percent of users. Musk is in the process of buying a company that has more than 200 million daily active users.

“20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher,” the Tesla CEO tweeted in response to a report from Teslarati. “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

At a Miami tech conference yesterday, Musk made similar comments, according to a report. There is no way to know the number of bots.

It has been speculated that Musk is using the discussion of the number of bots on the social networking site as a way to negotiate a lower acquisition price. At yesterday's conference, the CEO said that a deal at a lower price wouldn't be viable.

Musk said his deal to acquire the social media network was temporarily put on hold because of concern with the number of reported fake accounts. He is still committed to the acquisition.

The public spat between the CEO of the company and the CEO of the company happened on Monday. The number of accounts that are suspended every day was outlined by Agrawal. He said that they don't believe this specific estimation can be performed outside, given the need to use both public and private information.

Musk suggested that advertisers know what they are getting for their money.

Musk wants to improve the service under his ownership and addressing the number of fake accounts is one of the things he wants to do. He wants to prioritize free speech and open source the platform.