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Earlier this morning, Elon Musk tweeted a reply about his upcoming purchase of Twitter (TWTR) to @Teslarati: "20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher. My offer was based on Twitter's SEC filings being accurate.Yesterday, Twitter's CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does."

 

20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.

My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.

Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.

This deal cannot move forward until he does.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022

It feels like the world's richest troll is toying with us. He clearly has no use for Twitter's incumbent management team. If he truly doesn't trust the company's SEC filings, well… I could go on and on, but I'd rather hear from you. Is this Elon's way of bargaining for a cheaper purchase price? Is he just messing with us? Has he lost interest? Did he get cold feet? Let me know what you think.

Read more on this below:
 

Elon Musk said his $44 billion purchase of Twitter will not move ahead until he has more clarity on how many accounts are fake.

Twitter estimated in a filing earlier this month that fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users — known as mDAUs — during the first quarter were fake or spam accounts.

But Musk estimates that around 20% of the accounts on Twitter are fake or spam accounts and he’s concerned that the number could be even higher.

“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” Musk tweeted early Tuesday morning. “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”

Musk claims many of the spam accounts are “bots” but Twitter does not mention the word once in its SEC filing. Fake or spam accounts, often called bot accounts, are automated and not run by humans. But it’s worth noting that automated Twitter bots, which are programmed to tweet set things at set times, can be good or bad and Twitter doesn’t ban them all from the platform.

Just after Musk expressed his concerns, Twitter announced later Tuesday morning that it is committed to the deal at the pre-agreed price, adding that it has submitted a proxy filing to the SEC.

Continue reading at CNBC