Things are getting worse between Elon Musk and Twitter. While the billionaire suspended his takeover last week, among other things because of the social network’s claims concerning the number of fake accounts, he wanted to verify the social network’s statements on this subject. Problem, he revealed the method used to calculate this figure, which did not really please the company.
A new twist in the case of the takeover of Twitter comes a little more to sow doubt as to the conclusion of the transaction. Last Friday, a first spectacular turn of events shook the Internet: the billionaire announces to pause the process, following allegations from the social network about the number of fake accounts it hosts. He then explains that he wants to check the figures provided by the company, which ensures that they represent less than 5% of overall user volume.
Elon Musk then announces – still on Twitter, as usual – that his teams have randomly selected a sample of 100 accounts to analyze it and compare its results to those of Twitter. The billionaire even invites his subscribers to “repeat the same process to see what they discover”. Then, a few hours later, the businessman gives some news, which doesn’t seem very good. Indeed, he indicates that the firm’s lawyers called him to accuse him of having breached its confidentiality agreements.
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Elon Musk draws the wrath of Twitter with his tweets
By revealing his method of calculating the number of fake accounts, Elon Musk has indeed specified that he uses the same process as Twitter himself. Obviously, this indiscretion did not please the company at all, which could worsen relations between the two protagonists. The situation is already particularly unstable, after revelations about Elon Musk’s plans to lay off many employees to increase the firm’s profitability.
Especially since the billionaire multiplies the attacks towards Twitter. A few days ago, the latter also accused the platform of manipulating its users through its algorithm. Following these allegations, Jack Dorsey, creator of the social network, reacted by explaining that the algorithm “was designed simply to save you time when you’re away from the app for a while”and all it takes is a refresh of the News Feed to get things back to normal.
