Twitter will give Elon Musk ‘firehose’ data access to settle bot complaints

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Musk would be given unprecedented access to platform data in order to address his concerns about automated accounts. According to a report, Musk will be given access to the so-called "firehose"API that contains every single post on the site.

In April, Musk legally committed to purchasingTwitter but has grown increasingly vocal about possible bot activity on the platform, in what some see as an effort to cancel or renegotiate the deal on more favorable terms.

In an SEC filing on Monday, the CEO of the company accused the company of violating the April agreement by not giving him enough data on automated accounts.

According to Musk's representatives, the latest offer to simply provide additional details regarding the company's own testing methodologies is akin to refusing Mr. Musk's data request. Mr. Musk believes that the merger agreement is not being complied with by the company.

A user can see what a user would see if they followed every account on the service. It is one of the company's most closely held resources because of its value for ad-targeting. MIT researchers have had access to the feed in real time in the past.

The sheer scale of the data makes it difficult to conduct a full study of automated activity and it would take a lot of time and resources. Providing the data will be useful infending off Musk's concerns and ensuring that he honors the original deal.

A request for comment was not responded to by the company.