Elon Musk responded with a poop emoji after Twitter’s chief executive insisted the social media platform was doing everything in its power to weed out spam and bot accounts.
Just days after the Tesla boss said the issue forced him to put his $44 billion acquisition of the site “on hold,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said defended the handling of his company of spam and bots and dismissed claims that Twitter had not done enough to delete automated accounts.
He tweeted Monday that spam “impacts the experience for real people on Twitter” and that the company “has a strong incentive to identify and remove as much spam as possible every day.”
“Anyone who suggests otherwise is simply wrong,” Agrawal tweeted.
Musk was unimpressed and tweeted a poop emoji in response. He then commented, “So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money? This is fundamental to Twitter’s financial health.”
Last week, Musk claimed there was “some chance” that the true number of fake accounts on Twitter “could represent over 90% of daily active users.”
Agrawal said operators of spam and bot accounts are becoming more sophisticated – making it difficult for Twitter to identify and eliminate them.
Nonetheless, Agrawal claims that less than 5% of all Twitter’s “monetizable daily active users” — or mDAUs — are spam.
Agrawal declined to reveal how the company got the data, but said: “We gave Elon an overview of the estimation process a week ago and look forward to continuing the conversation with him and all of you.”
Musk tweeted over the weekend that Twitter’s legal team had accused him of violating a non-disclosure agreement by revealing that the sample size for the social media platform’s checks for automated users was just 100 accounts.
Agrawal defended his company’s handling of bots and spam accounts, saying Twitter is working hard to remove them from the site.AP
“Twitter’s legal team just called to complain that I violated their non-disclosure agreement by revealing that the bot review sample size is 100!” the Tesla CEO tweeted. “It actually happened.”
Twitter shares were down about 6.5% on Monday. Twitter shares sold for just over $38 a share on Wall Street — well below the $54.20 Musk offered to buy out the company’s shareholders and take the company private.
Analysts like Wedbush’s Dan Ives believe that Musk’s addressing the bot issue is an excuse to get the company to sell itself at a reduced price.
Musk has put his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter “on hold” pending a review of Twitter’s bot and spam policies.REUTERS
Ives said that several factors, including the changing stock market and funding issues, “have given Musk cold feet” and that hanging over “bots” is “likely more of a scapegoat to push for a lower price.” ”
Twitter’s board of directors knows that no one will come close to making an offer of similar magnitude, and that Musk, whose electric-car maker Tesla has lost $300 billion in market cap since announcing the deal last month, is fully aware.
“The elephant in the room for the Twitter board is that Musk can leave for a small $1 billion breakup fee (for any Musk relatives) and probably cite the bot/fake account issue as the reason, although that’s likely would be challenged by Twitter in court,” Ives said.
Twitter shares traded more than 6% on Monday. EPA
“If a revised deal is struck by Musk and Twitter, it will likely be at a lower price once negotiations begin and due diligence is done around Twitter DAU and algorithm hot-button issues.”
Twitter has been in an uproar since the company’s board announced last month that it had accepted Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid.
Agrawal fired two top executives on Thursday after telling employees the company had failed to meet growth and revenue targets.