Twitter now plans to provide Elon Musk access to data on bots

San Francisco: Microblogging platform Twitter’s board now plans to grant Elon Musk access to the massive stream of “firehose” data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, the Washington Post reported citing a person familiar with the company’s thinking. Soon after making a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter in April, Musk has […]

San Francisco: Microblogging platform Twitter’s board now plans to grant Elon Musk access to the massive stream of “firehose” data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, the Washington Post reported citing a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

Soon after making a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter in April, Musk has been asking for information about spam and fake accounts.

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On Monday he threatened to walk away from the deal if the company fails to provide the data.

To end the standoff with the billionaire, Twitter board has plans to comply with access to data that he says is necessary to evaluate the number of fake users on the platform.

The information could be provided as soon as this week, the person said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the report said.

The data comprises not only a real-time record of tweets but the devices they tweet from, as well as information about the accounts that tweet.

It has been available for years to companies that pay Twitter for the ability to analyse it to find patterns and insights in the daily conversation. Currently some two dozen companies pay for access for it.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO earlier said he does not believe in Twitter findings which say that false or spam accounts represent fewer than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users (229 million).

In a letter sent to Twitter on Monday, addressed to Twitter’s general counsel Vijaya Gadde, Musk’s legal team argued that the data stream is essential for understanding the amount of spam and bot activity on its platform, a figure that could influence the company’s ad revenue.

Musk “must have a complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitter’s business model — its active user base”, stated the lawyers from the firm Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. “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 Musk’s data requests.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the report said.

“Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement,” Twitter spokesman Scott Bisang said in a statement.

“We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”