Updated August 7th, 2022 at 20:38 IST
Elon Musk challenges Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to 'public debate' on bots data
Musk's fan detailed to him that Twitter had handed him “outdated and fake data set” with respect to how the firm calculates its mDAU that determines bot data.
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SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to 'a public debate' about how the social media giant counts fake accounts and spam bots. In a series of tweets, Musk asked Parag to debate the percentage of bots on the social media platform as he responded to the queries on the countersuit against San Francisco-based Twitter. Musk also launched a Twitter poll asking his followers to vote if at least ”[l]ess than 5% of Twitter daily users are fake/spam” in an attempt to withdraw from the $44 billion deal to buy the online firm.
Musk's fan detailed to him that Twitter had handed him the “outdated and fake data set” with respect to how the firm calculates its mDAU that determines the bot's percentage online. “Good summary of the problem. If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms. However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not," the SpaceX boss wrote on his official Twitter handle.
“I (hereby) challenge @paraga to a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage. Let him prove to the public that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users!” Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday.
🧵@elonmusk's counterclaim suit against Twitter.
— Andrea Stroppa (@Andst7)
Clearly, from Twitter SEC filings, mDAU is the key metric. It is the key metric for its business rev. And its market value;
mDAU is an ad hoc metric, created to protect Twitter's interests. No competitor uses something similar.
3/ Furthermore, Twitter, refused to say to @elonmusk and his team, who reviews for spam, how those reviewers are trained, the criteria it uses, the process it follows, the standards it applies, or how Twitter verifies the accuracy of the reviewers' results
— Andrea Stroppa (@Andst7)
Good summary of the problem.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms.
However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.
I hereby challenge @paraga to a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Let him prove to the public that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users!
Musk asks for bot data to proceed with deal on original terms
Musk's offer of a debate with the Twitter CEO comes as the company's attorneys argued in court filings that the Tesla CEO gave the company just a twenty-four-hour window to accept his buyout offer. But Musk on Saturday argued that if Twitter "simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real," the buyout deal should proceed on original terms without any obstacles. Addressing Twitter CEO Parag Aggrawal, Musk then wrote: “Let him prove to the public that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users!”
The 51-year-old Tesla boss had paid a $54.20 per share premium on Twitter stock’s price of about $38 but had to walk out of the deal in the month of July. In his argument, Musk said that Twitter failed or refused to provide accurate data on the fake or spam accounts on the platform. Twitter dismissed the claim by Musk that he was signing a $44 billion agreement and sued him. Musk has since been trying to defer the trial date from October to next year. Twitter has labelled Musk's demands “implausible and contrary to fact."
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Published August 7th, 2022 at 20:38 IST