Fakoyejo Olalekan
Twitter has bowed to pressure from billionaire, Elon Musk, over request to access their user data to determine how many fake accounts exist on the social media platform before he continues his acquisition talk.
Earlier this week, Musk had threatened to walk away from the $44 billion deal, accusing Twitter management of refusing him access to the bot accounts, which the company claimed make up less than 5% of its over 200 million user base.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelTwitter’s decision not to grant the Tesla Chief Executive Officer access is described as “material breach” of the acquisition agreement by Musk’s representative, and this could help Musk walk away from the deal without being fined $1 billion for break fee.
The billionaire disagrees with the percentage of bot accounts Twitter claims it has, as he believes the figure could be more than the company stated in its filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Musk previously said the SEC documents were used to determine his decision to buy Twitter, but he now doubts the disclosure by the board, and wants direct access to the data on fake accounts, as he doesn’t trust the methodology used by the microblogging site to count its users.
If the percentage Twitter reported in the documents are discovered to be less than the figure initially stated, Musk hinted by agreeing to a tweet that the value of the deal will be cut by the actual percent discovered.
Following his threat, the Washington Post reported that Musk will be granted access to 500 million tweets posted every day, ahead of shareholders’ meeting, slated for late July or early August, to vote on the deal.
