Twitter’s share of spam users has become the major contentious issue in connection with Elon Musk’s agreement to buy the company.
Updated less than 10 minutes ago
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On Tuesday morning, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that the agreement “can not move forward” if Twitter does not present evidence that the proportion of spam users is below five percent.
– Looks like Twitter should welcome an external valuation if their claims are true, he writes in another tweet shortly afterwards.
The statement comes after Musk on Monday night estimated that at least 20 percent of users are fake users, and that this number was in the lower part of his estimate.
Twitter shares fell 2.38 percent in pre-trade on Wall Street shortly after it opened on Tuesday morning.
On Friday, Musk announced that the acquisition agreement had been put on hold, at the same time as he referred to a case from Reuters where it is stated that Twitter itself estimates that fake accounts or spam robots represent less than five percent of revenue-generating daily active users on the platform in the first quarter.
It is Twitter itself that in an announcement presented the figures.
Explained how Twitter works
In a longer thread on Monday night, Twitter boss Parag Agrawal tried to explain the background for the figures they have presented.
There he explains that the company weekly “locks millions of user accounts” which they suspect may be spam, because they can not carry out a so-called human verification. In addition, he provides a number of examples of how the company works to exclude fake users.
– We know that we are not perfect when it comes to taking spam accounts. That is also why we know that some people get through even with the measures I have explained above (in the Twitter thread editor’s note), Agrawal wrote.
The Twitter manager further writes that they measure the number of such users internally.
– Our internal estimates for the last four quarters were all well below five percent, Agrawal wrote.
Different types of robot accounts
Twitter defines so-called “bots” as automatic accounts.
These accounts can do the same thing as people on Twitter. They can post, follow other accounts, and retweet.
These robots are not illegal on Twitter, but company policies require them to signal that they are automated.
Spam bots, on the other hand, are defined as automated accounts that aim to manipulate and annoy. These accounts are not legal on the platform, and Twitter is blocking accounts that have suspicious activity.
In a post from 2020, which the Twitter boss linked to in connection with Monday’s thread, the company emphasizes that there is a difference between such robots.
– What is more important to focus on in 2020 is the holistic behavior of an account, not just whether it is automated or not, writes Twitter.
– It is not just a binary question of fine or not – the differences between are what matters, the platform writes.
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