Newsletter
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has now apparently challenged the top Twitter executive to a “public debate” over how many bots are on the platform. The challenge comes as Mr. Musk is scheduled to square off against Twitter lawyers in October. With that court date set to determine whether Mr. Musk should have to follow through on his buyout of the platform.
Why is Elon Musk challenging the CEO of Twitter to a public debate and will anything come of it?
To submit his challenge, Mr. Musk took to Twitter, calling out what he says are inaccurate figures with regard to how many “fake or daily spam” accounts are on the platform in the app and online. And he has called for a debate in order to give the CEO of Twitter a chance to prove its numbers. Specifically requesting that Twitter provides its method for sampling 100 accounts and how it knows they’re real.
If the numbers don’t add up, the Tesla executive says, then his $44 billion deal to buy the platform should not go through.
Twitter, for its part, has said that fewer than 5 percent of its accounts are not real. The social media giant has taken it a step further too, calling out Elon Musk’s Tweets on the matter as “factually inaccurate, legally insufficient and commercially irrelevant.”
Mr. Musk was also granted full access to the Twitter feed to asses the numbers for himself. According to the executive’s legal team, a much higher percentage of users were found to be bots. The legal team purportedly used a Botometer analysis to reach the conclusion.
Twitter will most likely choose not to respond to the claims or challenges from Elon Musk, in the interim. Currently, the upcoming court case is not expected to be protracted. The company has also sued Mr. Musk for allegedly breaking the agreement, calling Mr. Musk’s claims “lame rationales for reneging on his contract.”
Good summary of the problem.
If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms.
However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2022