Musk threatens to blow up the $ 44 billion deal with Twitter if the social network fails to provide accurate figures on the number of fake profiles present on the platform. The letter sent Monday to Sec is the last warning to the social network. On May 13, Tesla’s number one had already “temporarily suspended” the acquisition pending certification of the percentage of bot on the platform.
The topic of fake accounts is proving to be the biggest stumbling block before the deal is closed. Twitter, in the latest documents delivered to the SEC in 2021, the American market authority, had estimated the number of fake accounts at around 5%. For Musk, who has never hidden his doubts about this fact, there could be many more. Twitter currently has around 229 million active users.
Twitter, Musk reiterates: “Provide data on spam or deal can skip”
06 June 2022
What are fake Twitter accounts and what they do
Fake accounts, fake or bots, are all terms that refer to profiles actually controlled by a software. They have a username, a profile photo, often a bio, but behind them there are no real people but programs able to move them, often in unison, and make them perform autonomously some actions available on the platform: they publish messages, relaunch those. of others, they comment on a tweet in a coordinated way in order to exalt or discredit it, they tweet with hashtags and particular themes to make them end up among the most discussed topics.
It is not a new phenomenon. Analysts have been studying their functions and behaviors since 2012, when the first reports on the existence of these coordinated account networks were published, identifying some tens of millions, approximately 9% of the total profiles present on the platform.
Social network
Finding bots on Twitter is difficult, but not impossible: that’s how it is done
by Francesco Marino
24 Maggio 2022
Because for Musk the data is so important
For Musk, the exact number of fake accounts is important because this is the only way to establish Twitter’s true commercial value. Everything revolves around the concept of Two (English acronym for monetizable daily active user), or the daily active users that can be monetized. In other words, human users, not software. Only the number of monetizable active users can give a precise estimate of the value of Twitter, because only they are the ones who become advertising targets for advertisers. And social media monetize above all from the advertisements sold.
It is therefore clear that if Musk’s suspicions were true, and that therefore that 5% of bot is an underestimated value, the price paid for Twitter could be higher than the real value of the social network. Many see Musk’s move as a speculative purpose: to put the social network in difficulty and ask for a discount on the agreed price.
But the bot theme is there and Musk asks to check their number. If he’s right, he could save a few billion on the operation. According to some reports by private analysts, the number of fake accounts today may have reached 10-13%, with a sustained increase in the second half of 2021. One of the authors of these surveys is the Italian cybersecurity expert and data analyst Andrea Stroppa, active on Twitter and often relaunched by Musk. But at the moment there are no official estimates. The only ones able to provide it are Twitter technicians. And the company will have to release the data sooner or later if it doesn’t want Musk to blow the deal.