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Elon Musk's proposal to buy Twitter is apparently in risk due to Twitter's failure to verify spam account data.
The Tesla CEO, 51, who offered $44 billion to buy Twitter, has threatened to walk away from the transaction if the firm cannot demonstrate that less than 5% of its daily active users are automated spam accounts.
Last month, Twitter granted Musk and his team access to the platform's "firehose" of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets.
According to three people familiar with the situation, Musk's team has concluded that Twitter's data on spam accounts are unverifiable.
According to the insiders, Musk's team is likely to take dramatic action, but they did not specify what that action would be. According to the Post, if Musk backs out of the transaction, he could face a big legal struggle.
During a conference call with executives on Thursday, Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts every day, as part of an effort to shed more light on the company's bogus and bot accounts as it battles Musk over'spam bots.'
Musk has claimed, without providing evidence, that Twitter has vastly underestimated the number of'spam bots' - artificial accounts that generally push frauds and falsehoods - on its platform.
Twitter stated on the call that spam accounts account for less than 5% of its active user base each quarter.
Twitter said it checks 'thousands of accounts' picked at random to assess whether an account is legitimate, using both public and private data such as IP addresses, phone numbers, geolocation, and how the account behaves when it is active.
Private data, which is not publicly available and hence not included in Musk's data 'firehose,' includes IP addresses, phone numbers, and location. According to Twitter, such sensitive information aids in avoiding the misclassification of legitimate accounts as spam.
For years, fake social media accounts have been a source of concern. Advertisers base their spending decisions on the quantity of users offered by social media networks. Spam bots are also used to propagate misinformation and amplify messages.
However, Twitter stated during the conference call that not all automated accounts are harmful bots. It released a label for automated accounts last year to designate what the business refers to as 'good bots,' such as those that offer news, health, or weather updates.
Twitter and its investors are well aware of the issue of phony accounts. For years, the business has revealed its bot projections to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, while also warning that its estimate may be too low.
This week, Musk will meet Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal at this year's billionaire summer camp in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Musk is slated to deliver the keynote speech in front of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
The conference, dubbed "billionaire summer camp," brings together the top personalities in tech and business to explore the industry's future.
The annual invite-only, conference is hosted by the investment bank Allen & Company. This year, the five-day conference, running from July 6 to 10, is being held at the edge of Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest in a tiny town of just 1,500 people.
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