According to Elon Musk’s latest Tweet, the Billionaires deal in acquiring the social media platform Twitter is temporarily on hold.
As per the tweet, additional details supporting the calculation of spam and fake accounts are currently pending. As per Musk’s estimates, these fake and spam accounts represent 5% of users on Twitter.
A public form with investors went viral on social media last week. Musk has received investments from a variety of companies, including Binance, according to the form. Musk was required to file the Schedule 13D form since his investors own more than 5% of Twitter’s stock.
Musk, on the other hand, submitted this form around ten days after the deadline for filing the public form with the SEC. Since his holdings peaked at over 5% on March 14, he should have completed his stake by March 24 at the latest. According to the Wall Street Journal, the delay allowed Musk to collect additional equities without telling other shareholders.
Elon Musk’s delayed disclosure is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC].
Musk said in a statement released last month that he wants to fight spam bots, authenticate all people, and open source Twitter’s algorithms. Bots are now allowed on Twitter, although such accounts must specify that they are automated, according to the company’s rules.
On the Twitter filing, there is a segment relating to the spam and fake accounts, which reads,
“We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter. The false or spam accounts for a period represent the average of false or spam accounts in the samples during each monthly analysis period during the quarter. In making this determination, we applied significant judgment, so our estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts, and the actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated.”
The announcement that the purchase had been put on hold sent Twitter’s stock down by 19%.
This is a developing story. The article will be updated accordingly.