According to lawyers for the social media company, Musk's own data scientists did not find a lot of "Bots" on the platform.
The day before Musk sent his first letter to the executives of the company, two firms he hired to analyze huge amounts of user data reported their own estimates of how many people are on the micro-messaging service. The firm told Musk that it had an estimate on the number of fake accounts on the social networking site. Lawyers for the social media company said during a hearing on Tuesday that CounterAction said it had found 5.3% bot.
It's very different from Musk's estimates. In May, he said that fake accounts on the platform could be much higher. Musk said in his letter that he was pulling out of the deal because the bots on the platform were higher than what he had been told. In October, the case will be heard in Delaware, where the lawsuit was filed.
A lawyer for the company said that the findings by Musk's chosen firms were in line with what the company had said. The analyses didn't support what Mr. Musk told the parties and the world.
The lawyer for the company accused Musk's legal team of deliberately withholding the data during the court battle, saying they had only just been able to view the documents.
The attorney said during the hearing that the analyses that Mr. Musk told the world have not been produced in the case.
This may be a dicey argument because the actual number of bots is still higher than they think. Musk's legal team didn't say anything.
Musk's main argument for abandoning the deal was that he was misled about the number of authentic accounts on the platform. According to Musk, this allows him to walk away from the acquisition. The billionaire amended his countersuit against the social media company because of the disclosure of a former security chief at the company.
The FTC consent decree regarding data security and intellectual property is one of the new claims. The issues allow him to back out of the deal completely. Legal experts don't think that any of Musk's claims are strong enough to win the case.
When Zatko worked at the company, it investigated and addressed all of his claims, and now it is looking for a connection between him and Musk.
The case is still scheduled for a five-day trial in October, despite rumors of an out-of-court settlement.
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