Twitter deal on hold over Musk’s concerns about the number of fake and spam accounts

Elon Musk has put a temporary hold on his bid to buy Twitter. The reason - anticipation of “pending details” regarding the calculation mechanism behind the estimate of under 5% share of fake/spam accounts on the social media platform.

Another week comes and goes, and another episode of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition saga takes place. This time the problem seems to be the billionaire’s concerns over the number of fake and spam accounts on the social media platform.

On May 13th, Musk shared in a Tweet that the deal for the acquisition of Twitter was temporarily on hold. This decision comes in the aftermath of the latter issuing a report that fake and spam accounts comprise “less than 5%” of all active Twitter users.

Twitter certainly does not have the best track record when it comes to keeping a count of its users. The company has repeatedly made “technical” errors when calculating their number of daily users, which in turn has led to overestimations of how many people actually use the social media platform on a daily basis.

This is no secret, however. Twitter has come out officially with this information and has acknowledged that the algorithm they were using had led to an overestimation of the number of daily users for at least three consecutive years.

In light of this, it makes sense why many (including Musk) approach any statistical data coming from Twitter with a healthy dose of skepticism. Given the staggering 44 billion USD that Musk has offered to pay, it is only natural for him to want to ensure that he is gaining enough bang for his buck.

This is just the latest hurdle that the acquisition, which began quite some time ago, will have to overcome. Musk has subsequently reaffirmed his commitment to finalizing the deal. When that will happen is another matter entirely.