Brad Greenspan, one of the founders of one of the first social networking sites Myspace, argues that it would have been easier for Elon Musk to create his own “Twitter clone” rather than buy the platform.
Elon Musk has been told by Twitter’s legal team that he has breached a nondisclosure agreement after previously tweeting about how the company monitors bot accounts, he tweeted on Saturday.
“Twitter legal just called to complain that I violated their NDA by revealing the sample size of the bot check is 100!” Musk tweeted: “This really happened.”
Musk is in the process of finalizing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and is considering public filings, including the number of bot users on the platform, which he has promised to remove once he takes control of the company.
Twitter legal just called to complain that I violated their NDA by revealing the bot check sample size is 100!
This really happened.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
ELON MUSK SAYS TWITTER DEAL IS ‘ON HOLD’
After an internal review, Twitter told Musk that bot accounts make up less than 5 percent of its users.
“Twitter deal temporarily suspended pending details to support calculation that spam/fake accounts indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk tweeted.
Elon Musk is seen arriving at the Met Gala 2022 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images) (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images/Getty Images)
The minuscule figure is well below expectations for anyone who uses the platform regularly, including Musk, who followed up on his tweet by sharing how Twitter reached the figure.
ELON MUSK ACQUIRES TWITTER IN $44 BILLION DEAL: NOW WHAT?
Musk is in the process of finalizing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and is considering public filings, including the number of bot users on the platform, which he has promised to remove once he takes control of the company. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“To find out, my team will randomly sample 100 @twitter followers. I invite others to repeat the same process and see what they discover,” he tweeted, when someone on the platform requested Musk “Work out a little bit about the Process.”
To find out, my team does a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter†
I invite others to repeat the same process and see what they discover…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
“Any sensible random sampling process is fine. If many people independently get similar results for %fake/spam/duplicate accounts, that will be telling. I chose 100 as the sample size because that’s what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate," Musk said.
Any sensible random sampling process is fine. If many people independently get similar results for % fake/spam/duplicate accounts, that will be telling.
I chose 100 as the sample size because that’s what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
The next day, Musk shared the alleged NDA violation.
I relied on the accuracy of Twitter’s public filings
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
Musk is often critical of the platform, once telling users that they were “manipulated” by the algorithm in ways they “don’t realize.”
FILE – The login/sign-in screen for a Twitter account can be seen on a laptop on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File/AP Newsroom)
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Amid the controversy, Tesla’s CEO said he is still “still committed” to the Twitter purchase.
Still committed to acquisition
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022