Elon Musk says $44 billion Twitter takeover could go ahead if it gives details of fake accounts

• Elon Musk said he'd proceed with his $44 billion takeover of Twitter if he is given bot info.
• The world's richest man called for a public debate on how Twitter assesses fake accounts.

Elon Musk says his bid to acquire Twitter for $44 billion could still go ahead if the social platform disclosed how it tracks fake accounts.

On Saturday, Musk tweeted: "If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they're confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms. However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not."

The Tesla and SpaceX's CEO has insisted that the deal cannot go ahead unless Twitter proves that less than 5% of its accounts are bots.

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He also accused Twitter of withholding this information from him, which the company has denied.

Musk believes that at least 20% of daily active users are fake or spam accounts. Twitter has previously said the number is less than 5%.

Musk has once again challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a public debate in response to a thread on Twitter by cybersecurity researcher Andrea Stroppa summarizing Musk's countersuit against Twitter.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2022

After Musk walked away from the deal, the social platform said his action was "invalid and wrongful" and took legal action against Musk.

Musk's lawyers filed a countersuit against Twitter, accusing it of deliberately "miscounting" the number of spam accounts as part of what he called a "scheme to mislead investors about the company's prospects."