Apollonian
Guest Columnist
Musk wants to investigate just exactly how many real humans and robots there are on "Twitter" making noise
Invalid traffic, according to the report, accounts for 40% of all web traffic and its prevalence distorts the cost and value of paid marketing campaigns, segment targeting, and customer acquisition. For a website like Twitter, which offers a free service to users in order to sell their userbase to businesses running marketing campaigns, reliable analytics mean everything to a prospective marketer’s bottom line.“Our study looked into users who came from Twitter to other websites. But, if you consider that many bots don’t click through to other sites and only stay on Twitter, then it seems very likely that bot traffic inside the platform itself could be significantly higher than 12%. Ultimately, we’re living in the era of the Fake Web, where bots, malicious users and automation tools make up a large portion of all web traffic, and this data supports what we’re seeing out there.”
“Texans rely on Twitter’s public statements that nearly all its users are real people. It matters not only for regular Twitter users, but also Texas businesses and advertisers who use Twitter for their livelihoods,” said Paxton. “If Twitter is misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up their revenue, I have a duty to protect Texans.”Paxton said the difference between Twitter’s claims that less than 5% of users are bots versus his projections of possibly 20%, “would dramatically affect the cost of Texas consumers and businesses transacting with Twitter.”
Paxton’s office has issued a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) to investigate whether Twitter’s reporting on real versus fake users is “false, misleading, or deceptive” under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Per the demand, Twitter would be compelled to turn over documents on how it calculates and manages user data and how that information relates to advertising. -Fox News
Today I’m investigating Twitter for potentially misleading Texans on the number of its “bot” users. I have a duty to protect Texans if Twitter is misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up their revenue.https://t.co/OZbwdV3pnY
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) June 6, 2022
The new 13D filing sparked an immediate 7% hammering in TWTR stock before the bell…“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” then added:
“Still committed to acquisition.”
Juts more negotiation? What is the next step? Twitter sues Musk, in a Washington DC court, and judge rules ‘fair value’ for Twitter is $500 per share?Dear Ms. Gadde:
We are in receipt of correspondence sent on Twitter’s behalf dated June 1, 2022, responding to Mr. Musk’s request for the data and information described in my letters dated May 25, 2022 and May 31, 2022.
Mr. Musk does not agree with the characterizations in Twitter’s June 1 letter. Twitter has, in fact, refused to provide the information that Mr. Musk has repeatedly requested since May 9, 2022 to facilitate his evaluation of spam and fake accounts on the company’s platform. Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details regarding the company’s own testing methodologies, whether through written materials or verbal explanations, is tantamount to refusing Mr. Musk’s data requests. Twitter’s effort to characterize it otherwise is merely an attempt to obfuscate and confuse the issue. Mr. Musk has made it clear that he does not believe the company’s lax testing methodologies are adequate so he must conduct his own analysis. The data he has requested is necessary to do so.
As noted, under various terms of the merger agreement, Twitter is required to provide data and information that Mr. Musk requests in connection with the consummation of the transaction. Twitter’s obligations to provide Mr. Musk with information is not, as the company’s June 1 letter suggests, limited to a “very specific purpose: facilitating the closing of the transaction.” To the contrary, Mr. Musk is entitled to seek, and Twitter is obligated to provide, information and data for, inter alia, “any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction” (Section 6.4). Twitter must also provide reasonable cooperation in connection with Mr. Musk’s efforts to secure the debt financing necessary to consummate the transaction, including by providing information “reasonably requested” by Mr. Musk (Section 6.11). Mr. Musk’s requests for user data not only satisfies both criteria, but also meets even Twitter’s narrowed interpretation of the merger agreement, as this information is necessary to facilitate the closing of the transaction.
As Twitter’s prospective owner, Mr. Musk is clearly entitled to the requested data to enable him to prepare for transitioning Twitter’s business to his ownership and to facilitate his transaction financing. To do both, he must have a complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitter’s business model—its active user base. In any event, Mr. Musk is not required to explain his rationale for requesting the data, nor submit to the new conditions the company has attempted to impose on his contractual right to the requested data. At this point, Mr. Musk believes Twitter is transparently refusing to comply with its obligations under the merger agreement, which is causing further suspicion that the company is withholding the requested data due to concern for what Mr. Musk’s own analysis of that data will uncover.
If Twitter is confident in its publicized spam estimates, Mr. Musk does not understand the company’s reluctance to allow Mr. Musk to independently evaluate those estimates. As noted in our previous correspondence, Mr. Musk will of course comply with the restrictions provided under Section 6.4, including by ensuring that anyone reviewing the data is bound by a non-disclosure agreement, and Mr. Musk will not retain or otherwise use any competitively sensitive information if the transaction is not consummated.
Based on Twitter’s behavior to date, and the company’s latest correspondence in particular, Mr. Musk believes the company is actively resisting and thwarting his information rights (and the company’s corresponding obligations) under the merger agreement. This is a clear material breach of Twitter’s obligations under the merger agreement and Mr. Musk reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement.
Read more [ck site link, above, top]wooo Monday morning SEC filing LFG!!!
"Musk believes [Twitter] is actively resisting and thwarting his information rights (and the company’s corresponding obligations) under the merger agreement" https://t.co/AMJ0LEuhk7
— kim lyons (@SocialKimLy) June 6, 2022
More from Twitter Slack channels: Twitter employees big mad cuz @elonmusk said “all lives matter” pic.twitter.com/aKeCIqmu9E
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 17, 2022
BREAKING: Leaked Internal Slack Messages Show Twitter Employees Reaction to @ElonMusk's #TwitterAllHands Call pic.twitter.com/VMZ1Uoxu4E
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 16, 2022
BREAKING: Project Veritas LEAKS #TwitterAllHands with @ElonMusk
"It’s essential to have free speech."
"It’s important to represent multiple opinions & not driving a narrative."
“In order for people to have trust in @Twitter there needs to be transparency." pic.twitter.com/7rNphPg2zH
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 16, 2022
A user on Twitter was harassing some members of the executive team and some members of the board. And as an example, this person, the CTO came to me and said Mudge [Zatko’s hacker handle], you know, is this a real viable threat? Do I need to be worried? You know, who is this person? And it took me maybe 30 minutes to reach out to an employee and say, what do we know about this person?
And then it only took that person, maybe 10 minutes to get back to me and say, here’s who they are. This is the address where they live. This is where they are physically at this moment. They’re on their phone. We know their phone number. We also know all of the other accounts that they’ve tried to set up on the system and hide, and we know who they are on the other social media platforms as well.
Watch the full clip below:The number of cases that were reported to me by individual engineers saying, “Hey, we found this, I’m gonna try and have somebody fix it,” where that was the exact problem and we wouldn’t know if it had happened in the past, yes, I am concerned.