Elon Musk says Twitter deal ‘cannot move forward’ without more information.

This deal cannot move forward until Musk gets more information about the volume of fake accounts on the platform, he said on Tuesday.

Mr. Musk has latched onto the issue of fake accounts in recent days, in a move that some analysts think is an attempt to drive down the acquisition price or walk away from the deal altogether.

It's hard to believe that less than 5 percent of its accounts are fake, says Mr. Musk. In the early hours of Thursday, a person published a message. On Tuesday, Mr. Musk said the figure could be more than 20 percent.

Mr. Musk said in the message that his offer was based on the SEC filings.

The volume of fake, bot and spam accounts could account for more than half of all accounts, according to Mr. Musk.

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

On Monday, Mr. Musk spoke at a technology conference in Miami. The richest man in the world, Mr. Musk, said that striking a deal for a lower price was not out of the question.

Mr. Musk said at the event that the more questions he asked, the more his concerns grew.

The company's shares fell 8 percent on Monday. That is far below the price that Mr. Musk agreed to pay for the company. It is below where Mr. Musk first revealed that he had bought a stake in the company.

In premarket trading, the shares of the company fell.

The company said in a statement accompanying a regulatory filing that it was committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as quickly as possible.

The state of the deal has been confused by Mr. Musk, who leads both the electric automaker and rocket company. He said that he was temporarily on hold until he could find out more about the volume of fake accounts on the platform. He said he was still committed to the deal.

Mr. Musk has become a target of the executives on the micro-messaging service.

The chief executive of the company posted a lengthy thread detailing how the company calculates its number of bots. He said the company had shared an overview of the estimation process with Mr. Musk a week ago.

Mr. Musk went after the top lawyer at the platform. Mr. Musk's supporters bombarded the company executive with abuse.

Mr. Musk didn't reply to the request for comment. It was not possible to comment on the matter.

Tech company stocks have taken a beating since Mr. Musk first announced his acquisition. Musk's main source of wealth has fallen.

It would be difficult to get a deal done. A specific performance clause in Mr. Musk's deal with Twitter gives the company the right to force him to complete the deal if it is sued.

Mr. Musk has created a lot of headaches for the company. Over the weekend, he said that he violated a nondisclosure agreement by talking about the sample size of the bot. The nondisparagement clause in Mr. Musk's deal with Twitter prohibits him from saying bad things about the transaction.

The two sides have not stopped talking as if there is a deal. The teams held a meeting on Friday. The meeting was part of the transaction planning process.

Mike gave reporting.