Published on : 06/06/2022 – 16:57
Elon Musk claims in a stock filing released on Monday that Twitter “ actively resist to its requests for information about spam and fake accounts, which it considers a clear violation of the social network’s obligations under its takeover offer.
« Mr. Musk reserves all resulting rights, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement “, is it written in a letter addressed to the legal manager of Twitter published on the site of the American authority of the financial markets (SEC).
After filing an offer to buy the social network for 44 billion dollars in April, the multi-billionaire boss of Tesla has repeatedly questioned the data transmitted by Twitter on spam and fake accounts and the measures taken to limit proliferation.
According to Twitter, these account for less than 5% of registered accounts. « Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details relating to its testing methodologies, whether through written documents or verbal explanations, amounts to denying Musk’s claims for data. “, is it written in the letter. However, the entrepreneur needs more information to prepare the transition and finalize the financing of the operation.
Measures to combat fake accounts
After previous criticisms of Elon Musk, the boss of the social network Parag Agrawal had split mid-May of a long explanation on the measures taken to fight against fake accounts. Parag Agrawal had notably indicated that the figures of Twitter, according to which less than 5% of the accounts of the platform are fake, were “ based on multiple replications of human analysis of accounts, which are randomly selected ».
The whimsical entrepreneur had responded to these explanations with an emoji in the shape of poop. ” How can advertisers know what they are really paying ? “, he had also tweeted. ” This is a fundamental question for the financial health of Twitter. »
This new episode in the saga of the takeover of Twitter comes after the expiration, Friday, of the deadline granted to the American competition authorities to launch a thorough examination of the operation. They did not take up the case, thus leaving the field open to continue finalizing the transaction.
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(With AFP)