Elon Musk opened another front against Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on Tuesday, asking the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether Twitter’s claim about its user base is true.
Elon Musk mentions SEC on Twitter
Responding to a follower who stated that if it is discovered that Twitter lied in the official filing, serious consequences and complete investor distrust await, Musk responded, “Hello @SECGov, anyone home?”
While Twitter stated in an SEC filing that less than 5% of its monetisable daily active users (mDAUs) are bots, Musk believes the number is four times higher.
Musk has now launched a poll among his over 93 million followers to prove his point.
“Twitter claims that >95% of daily active users are real, unique humans. Does anyone have that experience?” he posted.
A user replied: “I have to think @elonmusk knew this was the case before he moved on Twitter. If Twitter lied about how many actual users they have to the SEC, we’re looking at a company that has perpetuated fraud on its shareholders and advertisers. Big trouble for the Twitter commies.”
“Absolutely,” replied Musk.
“Seems like Twitter should welcome external validation if their claims are true,” he added.
Musk previously stated that the $44 billion Twitter deal “cannot proceed” until Agrawal provides the exact bot numbers.
Musk stated in a series of tweets that the CEO publicly refused to show proof of less than 5% bots.
“20 per cent fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be much higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” Musk wrote.
Parag vs Musk
“Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of less than 5 per cent. This deal cannot move forward until he does,” he added.
Musk stated at a conference in Miami that Twitter could have at least four times the number of fake accounts revealed in its filing.
Musk went after Agrawal on Monday after the Twitter CEO went into greater detail about how the microblogging platform combats spam and fake accounts.
On his Twitter account, Musk even sent Agrawal an emoji depicting a “pile of poop.”
