Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal Can’t Happen Until Company Proves Bot Numbers

Elon Musk Wants Twitter to Show Proof of Bot Counts

On Tuesday, a Twitter account posted that Elon Musk should be looking for a better deal as $44 billion seems too high with 20 percent of users being fake or spam accounts.

Responding to the tweet, Musk himself wrote back saying, “20 percent 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.”

Earlier last week, Musk announced that the deal was on hold but that he's "still committed to acquisition” after he queried Twitter’s claim in filings with the US SEC that a small proportion of its users are fake.

On Monday, Musk suggested that he could seek to pay a lower price for Twitter either as a negotiating tactic or out of necessity.

Battle Over Spam Counts

Musk’s tweet comes just a few hours after Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, posted a lengthy thread saying that for the last four quarters, the company’s estimates for bot accounts were “well under 5 percent”

Musk who is known for his sarcastic personality responded to Agarwal’s claim with a poop emoji.