As of June 28, 2022, Elon Musk is seeking to end his $44bn (£36bn) bid to buy Twitter,
alleging multiple breaches of the agreement. The announcement is the latest twist after the
world’s richest person decided to buy Twitter in April. Mr. Musk said he had backed out because Twitter failed to provide enough information on the number of spam and fake accounts.
In May, Mr. Musk said the deal was “temporarily on hold” as he was waiting for data on
the number of fake and spam accounts on Twitter. Elon had asked for evidence to back the
company’s assertion that spam and bot accounts make up less than 5% of its total users.
In a letter filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Musk’s lawyer
said Twitter had failed or refused to provide this information. “Sometimes Twitter has ignored
Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear unjustified, and
sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the letter reads.
Mr. Musk believes that spam or bot accounts could account for 20% or more of Twitter
users. Spam accounts are designed to spread information to large numbers of people and
manipulate how they interact with the platform.
Musk said to be the world’s richest person, is the founder of rocket company SpaceX,
and the CEO of electric car company Tesla. He had pledged to loosen Twitter’s content
moderation rules once the company was under his ownership. He has long criticized Twitter’s
ban of some accounts, like that of former US President Donald Trump. He has also called for
more transparency over how the platform presents tweets to users, a system that currently
allows some to be promoted and given wider audiences.
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62102821
alleging multiple breaches of the agreement. The announcement is the latest twist after the
world’s richest person decided to buy Twitter in April. Mr. Musk said he had backed out because Twitter failed to provide enough information on the number of spam and fake accounts.
In May, Mr. Musk said the deal was “temporarily on hold” as he was waiting for data on
the number of fake and spam accounts on Twitter. Elon had asked for evidence to back the
company’s assertion that spam and bot accounts make up less than 5% of its total users.
In a letter filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Musk’s lawyer
said Twitter had failed or refused to provide this information. “Sometimes Twitter has ignored
Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear unjustified, and
sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the letter reads.
Mr. Musk believes that spam or bot accounts could account for 20% or more of Twitter
users. Spam accounts are designed to spread information to large numbers of people and
manipulate how they interact with the platform.
Musk said to be the world’s richest person, is the founder of rocket company SpaceX,
and the CEO of electric car company Tesla. He had pledged to loosen Twitter’s content
moderation rules once the company was under his ownership. He has long criticized Twitter’s
ban of some accounts, like that of former US President Donald Trump. He has also called for
more transparency over how the platform presents tweets to users, a system that currently
allows some to be promoted and given wider audiences.
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62102821
