Twitter buyout: Elon Musk demands assurances on fake accounts and sends a poop emoji

Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the takeover of Twitter would not be completed until he had a guarantee that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are fake. The boss of Twitter made a long explanation on Monday on the social network about the measures taken to fight against fake accounts after criticism from the billionaire, who responded with a poop emoji.

 

The executive director of Twitter yesterday refused to prove that less than 5% of the accounts were fake, tweeted the billionaire, who has nearly 94 million followers on the social network. Until he does, the transaction cannot go forward, he added.

 

Elon Musk refers to the explanations provided Monday by Parag Agrawal, the boss of Twitter, on the measures taken to fight against spam and fake accounts. The whimsical entrepreneur had responded with a poop emoji.

 

Speaking via video at a conference on Monday, the Tesla boss also estimated that fake accounts accounted for at least 20% of Twitter users, according to Bloomberg and tweets from people at the event.

  

Elon Musk recently made a $44 billion offer for Twitter, but on Friday he said the buyout had been temporarily put on hold. He first wants more clarity on the number of fake accounts on the social network, which he questioned the ability to estimate the number. It is therefore possible that he will take over the company for a lower price.

 

A few hours later, however, he had rectified the situation by saying that he was still committed to completing the operation. 20% fake accounts and spam is 4 times what Twitter says, but the real number could be *much* higher, Musk tweeted on Tuesday.

 

Contacted by AFP, Twitter did not react immediately to the latest remark of the whimsical entrepreneur. The group's shares were down 3.5% in electronic trading before the opening of Wall Street.