Elon Musk Challenges Twitter’s CEO to Debate on ‘Bot Percentage’ in Late Night Tweet: ‘Let Him Prove to the Public’ Company Claims
Tech billionaire Elon Musk says that if Twitter, Inc. provides “their method of sampling” and confirmation on the authenticity of accounts, then the massive purchase deal which is currently the subject of opposing legal actions “should proceed on original terms.” And, he added in a late-night tweet, he wants to debate the issue publicly with the current CEO.
Cybersecurity researcher and data analyst Andrea Stroppa tweeted a summary of the countersuit that Musk filed in response to Twitter’s lawsuit to force him to go through with the purchase deal that Musk terminated after what he said was a “material breach” of the terms by Twitter.
Stroppa wrote that it’s clear from Twitter SEC filings that monetizable daily active users (mDAU) is the “key metric” for the company’s revenue and market value.
“mDAU is an ad hoc metric, created to protect Twitter’s interests, said Stroppa. ‘No competitor uses something similar.”
🧵@elonmusk's counterclaim suit against Twitter.
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.
— Andrea Stroppa (@Andst7) August 5, 2022
When Musk requested, as part of that merger deal, information on fake and spam accounts, Twitter “provided a vague response,” wrote Stroppa, and continued in the thread listing other factors.
2/ When @elonmusk requested more information about spam and fake accounts; Twitter provided a vague response.
Then provided outdated data;
Then offered a fake data set (not real "firehose");
Then provided a cleaned data set where they already suspended the malicious accounts;— Andrea Stroppa (@Andst7) August 5, 2022
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) August 5, 2022
4/ @elonmusk data scientists, using Botometer (broadly used by most academic and independent researchers), estimated spam or fake represents between 10 and 14% of mDAU.
My team found similar figures. Other independent groups found similar figures too. https://t.co/XmyaXL06Ef
— Andrea Stroppa (@Andst7) August 5, 2022
The thread continued in that way before Stroppa noted that many people, and one can reasonably consider the press in general and Democrat media in particular, “hated FB for little transparency,” and yet “Twitter is worse.” The implication being that there is some selective outrage at play.
“For years, most researchers affirmed that Twitter’s estimates about its spam and fake accounts were inaccurate. Nobody cared,” said Stroppa. “But now [Musk] opened Pandora’s box, and there is still a story to write.”
Replying to the thread, Musk wrote that Stroppa presented a “good summary,” and added that if Twitter, Inc. came through with the requested information, the deal would go forward “on original terms.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2022
The Tesla and SpaceX mogul then challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a “public debate about the Twitter bot percentage.”
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 (@elonmusk) August 6, 2022
Agrawal has not accepted that debate challenge as of the time of this posting.
