Earlier this week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton waded into the conflict between Elon Musk and Twitter – the company Musk says he wants to buy. Paxton said he plans to investigate Twitter, based on what he says are a large number of fake accounts on the platform.
Musk has been seeking access to Twitter data to confirm the percentage of spam and bot accounts on the service. The Washington Post reports that Twitter plans to give Musk access to its firehose of data – millions of daily tweets – reversing its previous position.
Tech expert Omar Gallaga says Twitter had, until this week, resisted handing over the data Musk wants. It says the number of spam accounts on the service is far fewer than Musk believes, and that Twitter measures these accounts based on whether they are active on the service, and can be monetized.
Highlights from this segment:
– In releasing so much data to Musk, who has been backtracking on his $44 billion deal to buy the platform, Twitter may be calling the billionaire’s bluff.
– Because Twitter’s stock price is significantly below the amount at which Musk offered to buy the company, he could take a significant loss on the deal.
– Paxton has sued other social media companies, often for political reasons, like his opposition to Twitter’s decision to remove former president Donald Trump from the platform.
