Title: Elon Musk has openly and aggressively
reiterated his claim that Twitter Inc. is plagued by
bots.
Musk said last month that he was putting the
transaction "on hold" until the social media giant
can show that bots account for less than 5% of its
users, as the business has declared in public
filings.
According to Musk, fraudulent accounts
represent for at least 20% of all users.Twitter
confirmed that it has shared information with Musk
about how it calculates the amount of spam
accounts on the service, and officials have told
employees that Musk can't suddenly cancel the
transaction because the two companies have
signed a merger agreement. The company
restated on Tuesday, June 6th, 2022, that it will
hold Musk to the terms of his proposed $44 billion
acquisition, meaning that Musk is seeking to
torpedo the agreement, the company also stated
that it has cooperately shared information with
Musk and will continue to do so in the future, that
it believes the transaction is in the best interests
of all shareholders, and that it
intends to complete the transaction and enforce
the merger agreement at the agreed price and
terms.
If Musk tries to back out of the agreement, Twitter
may sue him to force him to complete it.
Elon Musk has been an active user of his
personal Twitter account for some time now. He
uses it not only to share updates about his
companies, but also to have conversations with
followers and share humorous insights into his life
as a well-known public figure. To date, the Tesla
CEO has over 21 million followers on Twitter. But
there’t another set of accounts that are also
interested in Elon Musk — bots. These are
software applications designed to mimic human
behavior online, usually with a specific objective in
mind (e.g., increasing followers or likes on social
media). According to new research, approximately
two million of Elon Musk’s 33 million followers are
actually fake Twitter bots — significantly reducing
his real reach as a public figure. After the news
went viral, Elon responded by saying: Who would
want to follow anything.
On Tuesday, Twitter's shares gained by less
than 1% to $39.60, widening the gap between
market expectations and the billionaire's $54.20per-share offer, raising market concerns that the
deal would fall through. The stock has only
recently reached $50 after Musk revealed his
buyout proposal on April 14. Because Musk
refused to delve deeper into Twitter's finances
than what was publicly available, which later the
deal was completed quickly put on hold.
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal
has publicly argued with Musk about bots on
Twitter. Agrawal stated that the company has
human reviewers look at thousands of accounts to
determine the prevalence of bots, but he couldn't
provide more details due to privacy concerns.
Unfortunately, given the critical need to use both
public and private information, we do not believe
that this specific estimation can be performed
externally.
In a letter to Twitter's top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde,
Musk's counsel said, Twitter's current promise to
simply provide further details regarding the
company's own testing methodology, whether
through written documents or verbal explanations,
is comparable to dismissing Mr. Musk's data
requests.Twitter's attempt to define it differently is
nothing more than an attempt to obfuscate and
distort the subject. Mr. Musk has stated that the
company's law testing techniques are insufficient,
and that he must undertake his own investigation.
The proposed takeover includes a $1 billion
breakup fee for each party, but Musk cannot
simply pay the fee and walk away. According to
the original filing, the merger agreement includes
a specific performance provision that allows
Twitter to compel Musk to complete the
transaction. That could imply that, if the deal is
challenged in court, Twitter could obtain an order
requiring Musk to complete the merger rather than
monetary compensation for any violations.
Musk's lawyer, Mike Ringler of Skadden, Arps,
Slate, Meagher & Flom, stated that Twitter must
comply by delivering the requested data so that
Musk can receive the debt financing needed to
complete the transaction.
Musk discussed "the future direction of social
media, particularly the benefits of open social
protocols" with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, a
current board member and former CEO. (Twitter
is financing Bluesky, a separate social media
protocol with email-like interoperability.)
Musk also explored joining the Twitter board of
directors with Egon Durban, co-CEO of the private
equity firm Silver Lake and a former colleague of
Musk's. Musk also revealed on the call with
Durban that he had purchased a "large interest" in
Twitter stock worth more than 5%. Musk
exceeded the 5% ownership mark in Twitter on
March 14, but did not declare it to the Securities
and Exchange Commission until April 4,
potentially in violation of securities rules.
After Reuters reported on Monday that the board
was planning to accept Musk’s offer,#RIPTwitter
started trending on the platform.
During a press briefing, White House press clerk
Jen Psaki responded to the news." No matter
who owns or runs Twitter, the chairman has long
been concerned about the power large social
media platforms have over our everyday lives,"
she said.
Prior to the final advertisement of the deal, some
US rightists had expressed stopgap that a Twitter
controlled by Musk would live up to his pledges of
promoting free speech above all additional. Rightsect politicians have long complained that they've
been cleaned by Big Tech, despite studies to the
negative. Twitter in particular has attracted their
wrath for permanently suspending the account of
Donald Trump after the former chairman was
indicted of using the service to incite sympathizers
to storm Capitol Hill onJan. 6, 2021.
Musk considered joining the Twitter board of
directors and other arrangements—taking Twitter
private or creating a competitor social media
service—during a discussion with Twitter board
chair Bret Taylor and CEO Parag Agrawal.
Starting a competitor site would have been an odd
move for Musk, who had recently purchased a
major part of Twitter's stock while publicly
disagreeing with the company's management.
Musk will explore these alternatives with board
members in two more sessions in the coming
days.
Why did Elon feel the need to take a break?
Social media is an essential part of leading a
public life, but it comes with some challenges.
One of the main issues is that it is difficult to
control what people post and share on your
behalf. Bots, which have been responsible for
spreading misinformation across the web, have
become a problem for a lot of social media
platforms. Musk, who has a large following on
Twitter, has been subject to many attacks on the
platform by bots. Although Twitter has been
working to take these bots off the platform, it’s
likely that Musk will see a lot of them in the near
future.
What exactly are spam bots?
Bots are programs that send out automated
tweets, either for information (like the US
government's "quakebot," which tweets the details
of seismic events) or for enjoyment (like the US
government's "quakebot," which tweets the
specifics of seismic events). Musk, on the other
hand, has focused his wrath on "spam bots,"
which are used to send out sales pitches or
overstate a person's or cause's prominence.
Musk, one of Twitter's most active celebrity users,
is well aware of the issue, as his name and
likeness are frequently imitated by phony
accounts pushing cryptocurrency frauds. It's also
a problem, according to Musk, for marketers who
buy ads on the site based on the number of
genuine people they anticipate to reach.
So now Similar bots — and the way Twitter counts
them — have come a sticking point in the deal.
Twitter has long bared it has a" number of false or
spam accounts" but estimates that they comprise
smaller than 5 of its further than 200 million
diurnal active druggies.
Musk insists the company has been
undercounting them and has demanded that
Twitter turn over its internal data for him to
examine. It's not clear whether he can fairly
demand similar information after declining his right
to conduct" due industriousness" on Twitter's
internal account and operations. Some experts
say a court will have to decide that.
According to Quinn, this assertion is compounded
by the fact that Musk has received commitment
letters for debt funding from a number of financial
institutions. Musk is likely to have had a different
experience with bots on the platform than the
majority of users. Those who create automated
accounts program them to follow popular users on
a website in order to blend in and appear more
human. Musk, who has 96 million followers, is
likely to attract a higher percentage of bots than
most users. His image has also been used to run
scams by cryptocurrency accounts. Though many
outside estimates place the proportion of Twitter
bots above the 5% threshold claimed by the
company, their assessments and methodologies
differ. Andrea Stroppa, a former World Economic
Forum data consultant and expert on online
counterfeit goods, estimates that bot accounts
have accounted for roughly 10% of Twitter's
global audience over the last nine years.
According to the researcher, the rate rises to as
much as 20% for some specific topics such as
cryptocurrencies, and above 30% for accounts
engaged in certain conspiracy theories.
Ann M. Lipton an associate professor of
commercial law and entrepreneurship at Tulane
University Law School in New Orleans said that
Musk would have to have a lot of proof to make it
worthwhile for Twitter to give up rather than fight
for the initial amount or It may turn into a ugly
judicial battle.
Musk feels Twitter's refusal to offer more
information is a clear significant breach of
Twitter's responsibilities under the merger
agreement, and he reserves all rights arising from
it, including the right not to complete the deal and
the right to cancel the merger agreement.