Elon Musk believes the Twitter deal ‘cannot move forward’ until bot numbers are proven

Elon Musk has maintained his allegation that false and spam accounts could account for more than 20% of Twitter’s users, stating the acquisition transaction “cannot move forward” until Twitter verifies the veracity of its far lower estimate of less than 5%. Musk is currently in the midst of paying $44 billion for Twitter and its estimated 226 million monetizable daily active users.

According to reports, Musk made similar remarks at a tech conference in Miami yesterday. During the presentation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that bots might account for at least 20% of Twitter users. “Right now, I’m being informed that there’s simply no way to know the number of bots,” Musk remarked. “It’s as enigmatic as the human soul.”

Twitter stated on Tuesday that it is “committed to completing the deal on the agreed price and terms as soon as practical.”

Elon Musk is rumored to be utilizing the topic of the number of bots on Twitter to negotiate a lower acquisition price.

Today’s remarks come just days after Musk claimed his acquisition of the social media network was “temporarily on hold” due to concerns over the amount of reported spam or phony accounts. He then stated that he is “still dedicated to [the] acquisition.”

The Tesla CEO’s efforts to obtain clarification on these figures resulted in a public confrontation with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on Monday. Agrawal provided information on the number of spam accounts that Twitter suspends each day, as well as how the team identifies them. He did, however, add, “we don’t feel this specific estimation can be accomplished outside, given the important necessity to use both public and private information (which we can’t release).” Musk used the excrement emoji to respond to his lengthy tweet thread.