Elon Musk has recently questioned whether Twitter is a product worth buying.
He’s claiming execs at the Big Tech company are misrepresenting the number of spam accounts currently active on the platform. Musk claims Twitter cannot rightfully provide advertisers with a proper or legitimate service without first understanding the spam problem. And without a legitimate service, one filled with active spam bots, it’s unlikely that Musk will remain interested in the deal.
This impasse has caused Musk to reconsider the entire deal, but this latest move by Twitter signals a willingness to comply with the Tesla CEO’s demands.
Twitter recently reversed an initial decision and will be giving Elon Musk access to their internal data.
The decision comes days after Musk submitted an SEC filing demanding access to the company’s internal data and threatening to withdraw his deal to purchase the social platform. The billionaire will now have access to the company’s “firehose” of internal data, the Washington Post reported.
This source of internal data was previously available to two dozen companies that pay for access to a database containing a real-time record of tweets, location data, and private information from the relevant accounts. The companies with access to this data were not identified.
Musk could be given access to this data as early as next week.
Twitter’s leaders are reportedly skeptical as to whether access to this data would provide Musk additional insights into his allegations that 20% of Twitter’s user base is fake or spam bots. The data have been available to the companies to help them identify trends. Now, some analysts believe Musk wants to use the “bots” as an excuse to back out of the deal or to seek a lower price.
Musk announced on May 13 that his deal to purchase Twitter was “temporarily on hold” due to the company’s low estimate of spam bots. He has emphasized this point, claiming that the social platform’s user base consists of at least 20% bots or spam accounts. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has attempted to explain the company’s approach to identifying spam accounts, including using private information to determine if accounts are indeed bots or fake. Agrawal’s words did little to convince Musk that he was wrong.
Getting out of the deal at this stage in the game could cost Musk up to $1 billion in fees, but lording over a dying social media behemoth may cost him his entire career.
Author: Asa McCue
