Elon Musk announces that the takeover of Twitter will not be done without the guarantee on fake accounts

Elon Musk announced in a post on his Twitter account that the agreement reached with the social media giant would not progress until the company guarantees that less than 5% of the accounts are fake.

“My offer was based on the accuracy of Twitter’s SEC filings. Yesterday, the CEO of Twitter publicly refused to show <5% proof. This deal can't move forward until it does.".

Twitter said hours after Musk’s last tweet that it remained committed to the deal as it filed new details of the transaction with US financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Twitter is committed to completing the transaction at the agreed price and terms as quickly as possible”the company said.

Elon Musk refers to the explanations provided Monday by Parag Agrawal, the boss of Twitter, on the measures taken to fight against spam and fake accounts. He explained that the rate of fake accounts, which has been 5% since 2013, is calculated using a method combining public and private information (IP address, geolocation, telephone number, etc.) which cannot be reproduced independently. . The whimsical entrepreneur had responded with an emoji in the shape of poop.

Fake accounts or spam accounts, called bot accounts, are automated and not managed by human users. They may use the reply function or direct messages to send advertisements or scams to users, or represent attempts to influence public discourse by tweeting political propaganda.

Other fake accounts exist solely to increase the metrics of individual users, who may buy followers, likes, and retweets from bot vendors who control thousands or millions of fake accounts.

However, Twitter has consistently made it clear in its quarterly filings since 2014 that it estimates its spam account problem represents less than 5% of its users.