Musk tells Twitter: prove your bot claims, or the deal is off

Elon Musk said he’ll proceed with his US$44-billion takeover of Twitter only if the social media giant can substantiate claims about the proportion of bots on its service.

The billionaire tweeted “this deal cannot move forward” unless Twitter provides proof of claims that less than 5% of its users are bots, reiterating his own view that the ratio is far higher.

Musk shocked the market last week when he tweeted that his offer to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” until he receives more information about the proportion of fake accounts on the social media site.

The Tesla CEO linked his tweet to a 2 May Reuters report on Twitter’s most recent disclosure about the number of bots on the platform. Roughly two hours later, Musk then claimed in another tweet that he was “still committed” to the deal.

Doubts have grown that Musk would be able to pull off his acquisition, and that he may consider dropping his bidding price for the micro-blogging site.

The whole transaction has been chaotic, with Musk going from a prolific user to revealing a stake of more than 9% in the company, then launching an unsolicited takeover offer — without detailed financing plans — within a matter of weeks.  — Edwin Chan, (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP