A beleaguered Twitter really wants its billionaire suitor to get this deal over with already.
Earlier this month, Twitter finally succumbed to Musk’s better-late-than never complaints around bot proliferation on the platform and provided him with a “firehose” of data. Apparently, that wasn’t enough to assuage Musk’s concerns, and now Twitter will reportedly sent the billionaire even more user data.
That’s according to a recent Insider report which claims Musk’s lawyers sent a letter to Twitter last week claiming the last trove of data was “insufficient.” While the previous dataset reportedly included records of users’ tweets as well as which devices those users tweeted from, the new tranche goes further and reportedly includes real-time API data. This data, according to sources cited in the Insider report, amounts to a “data stream” of Tweets and other activity on the platform normally reserved for certain developers. Insider claims Musk was unsatisfied with the first round of historical data because, his team claimed, he was unable to perform his own tests to discover potentially inauthentic accounts. Twitter reportedly gave in and handed over the new data earlier this week.
Twitter had originally resisted granting Musk the first round of data but eventually caved after Musk accused the company of “actively resisting and thwarting his information rights.”
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.
For those who haven’t been keeping up, Musk’s sudden interest in Twitter’s bot problem (an issue known by many to have plagued the platform for years) lies directly at the centre of Musk’s alleged efforts to renegotiate his $US44 ($61) billion Twitter acquisition for a lower price. Musk originally agreed to purchase Twitter for $US44 ($61) billion but since then Twitter’s value, along with many other tech firms, has dropped significantly. Last month, Musk invoked the bot issue, saying the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending more details around the true per cent of fake accounts running around on the platform. If Musk determines that figures surpass Twitter’s 5% estimate, some have suggested Musk could leverage that new information to negotiate a new deal at a lower price. Others, meanwhile, believe Musk’s actually still trying to find an easy way to weasel out of the deal completely.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
Twitter, on the other hand, increasingly appears more interested in just getting this damn thing over with. Twitter has repeatedly said it remains committed to seeing through the deal with Musk. Earlier this week, Twitter’s board unanimously recommended that the company’s shareholders vote to approve the deal.