Elon Musk tweeted, 'Twitter acquisition can't move forward until Twitter bots prove to be less than 5%.'

by Daniel Oberhaus

Elon Musk closed the acquisition of Twitter on April 26, 2022, but has since complained about the percentage of Twitter spam and fake accounts and Twitter's anti-spam policy, saying that the acquisition will be delayed. I'm making a statement.

Bloomberg --Elon Musk Says Twitter Must Prove Bot Claims for $ 44 Billion Deal to Proceed
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-17/elon-musk-says-twitter-must-prove-bot-claims-for-deal-to-proceed

Bloomberg --Twitter Loses Three More Senior Employees Ahead of Musk's Takeover
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-17/twitter-loses-three-more-senior-employees-ahead-of-musk-takeover

'We will temporarily suspend the acquisition of Twitter until we have data to support Twitter's estimates that'spam and fake accounts are less than 5% of users',' Musk said on May 13, 2022. I tweeted . In response to this, a survey by Twitter's analysis and commentary tools revealed that about 20% of Twitter's active accounts are spam and fake accounts.

Survey results show that about 20% of active Twitter accounts are spam / fake accounts --GIGAZINE

Also, following Mr. Musk's mention of spam and fake accounts, Twitter CEO Agrawal tweeted about Twitter's anti-spam policy, but Mr. Musk only used the poop pictogram '????'. After replying, he criticized that '(Mr. Agrawal's tweet) is dishonest to the advertiser who pays Twitter to deliver the advertisement.'

Elon Musk slams poop emoji '????' on Twitter CEO to blame anti-spam policy-GIGAZINE

As a result, Mr. Musk, who received Twitter's survey results and Mr. Agrawal's explanation, said, 'The survey result that the ratio of spam and fake accounts is' 20% 'is four times the' 5% 'that Twitter claims, far. My offer to buy is based on the accuracy of Twitter's SEC filing (financial and other formal documents for investors), so Twitter's CEO said, 'Spam and fake accounts are 5. You can't move the deal forward while you're refusing to publish evidence that says 'less than%'. '

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

Mr. Musk is believed to be planning to reduce the purchase price of $ 44 billion (about 5.65 trillion yen), but Twitter said in a statement submitted to the SEC on May 17, 2022, 'Agreement' We promise to complete the transaction as quickly as possible at the prices and conditions given. '

Also, Twitter was fired on May 12 by two executives, a consumer product leader and a revenue product manager, led by Mr. Agrawal, followed by product management vice president Ilya on the 17th. It has been reported that Brown, Katrina Lane, Deputy Head of Twitter Services, and Max Schmeiser, Head of Data Science, have submitted their resignations.

Twitter turns out to have almost stopped hiring new employees, and two executives are also fired under the leadership of the CEO-GIGAZINE