San Francisco: Elon musk suggested on Monday that he may ask for a lower price Twitter Inc.Having said that, there may be at least four times more fake accounts than what the company said.
“You can’t pay the price for something that’s worse than what they claim,” he said at a convention in Miami.
Musk, who said on Friday that his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was pending information on spam accounts, said he suspects they’re at least 20%, compared to Twitter’s official estimates of 5%. users create.
Asked at the conference whether the Twitter deal is viable at a different cost, Musk replied, “I mean, it’s not out of the question.”
“The more questions I ask, the more my worries grow,” he said at the All-In Summit 2022 conference.
“They claim that they have this complex methodology that only they can understand … It cannot be a deeper mystery, like, something more complex than the human soul or something like that.”
Twitter shares extended losses in afternoon trading following Musk’s comments.
The stock closed down more than 8% at $37.39 a day before Musk disclosed his Twitter stake in early April, raising doubts that the billionaire entrepreneur would go ahead with an acquisition of the company at the agreed-upon price.
Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal It tweeted earlier on Monday that internal estimates for spam accounts on the social media platform were “less than 5%” for the past four quarters, a response to days of criticism by Musk for the company’s handling of fake accounts.
He added that Twitter’s estimate, which has remained the same since 2013, cannot be reproduced externally, requiring both public and private information to be used to determine whether an account is spam. .
Musk responded to Agarwal’s defense of the company with a poop emoji.
“So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money? This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter,” Musk wrote.
Musk has promised changes to Twitter’s content moderation practices, railing against decisions like banning the company’s former president. Donald Trump Overly offensive, pledging to crack down on “spam bots” on the platform.
Musk has called for the investigation of random samples of Twitter users to identify the bots. He also added, “There is some possibility that this could be more than 90% of daily active users.”
Independent researchers have estimated that anywhere from 9% to 15% of millions of Twitter profiles are bots.
Twitter currently does not require users to register using their real identities and explicitly allows automated, parody and pseudonymous profiles on the service.
It bans impersonation and spam, and penalizes accounts when the company determines that they are intended to “deceive or manipulate others” by engaging in scams, coordinating abuse campaigns, or artificially increasing engagement. Is.
Musk’s comments to a private audience could raise concerns about his disclosure of market moving information.
Known for his candid Twitter posts, Musk has a long history of skirmishes with the US Securities and Exchange Commission; Recently, a US judge reprimanded him for requiring him to monitor his Tesla tweets to try to avoid a settlement with the SEC.
“You can’t pay the price for something that’s worse than what they claim,” he said at a convention in Miami.
Musk, who said on Friday that his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was pending information on spam accounts, said he suspects they’re at least 20%, compared to Twitter’s official estimates of 5%. users create.
Asked at the conference whether the Twitter deal is viable at a different cost, Musk replied, “I mean, it’s not out of the question.”
“The more questions I ask, the more my worries grow,” he said at the All-In Summit 2022 conference.
“They claim that they have this complex methodology that only they can understand … It cannot be a deeper mystery, like, something more complex than the human soul or something like that.”
Twitter shares extended losses in afternoon trading following Musk’s comments.
The stock closed down more than 8% at $37.39 a day before Musk disclosed his Twitter stake in early April, raising doubts that the billionaire entrepreneur would go ahead with an acquisition of the company at the agreed-upon price.
Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal It tweeted earlier on Monday that internal estimates for spam accounts on the social media platform were “less than 5%” for the past four quarters, a response to days of criticism by Musk for the company’s handling of fake accounts.
He added that Twitter’s estimate, which has remained the same since 2013, cannot be reproduced externally, requiring both public and private information to be used to determine whether an account is spam. .
Musk responded to Agarwal’s defense of the company with a poop emoji.
“So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money? This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter,” Musk wrote.
Musk has promised changes to Twitter’s content moderation practices, railing against decisions like banning the company’s former president. Donald Trump Overly offensive, pledging to crack down on “spam bots” on the platform.
Musk has called for the investigation of random samples of Twitter users to identify the bots. He also added, “There is some possibility that this could be more than 90% of daily active users.”
Independent researchers have estimated that anywhere from 9% to 15% of millions of Twitter profiles are bots.
Twitter currently does not require users to register using their real identities and explicitly allows automated, parody and pseudonymous profiles on the service.
It bans impersonation and spam, and penalizes accounts when the company determines that they are intended to “deceive or manipulate others” by engaging in scams, coordinating abuse campaigns, or artificially increasing engagement. Is.
Musk’s comments to a private audience could raise concerns about his disclosure of market moving information.
Known for his candid Twitter posts, Musk has a long history of skirmishes with the US Securities and Exchange Commission; Recently, a US judge reprimanded him for requiring him to monitor his Tesla tweets to try to avoid a settlement with the SEC.