Elon Musk’s countersuit to Twitter contains several claims about the social media company, including that that the San Francisco, California-based social media giant misled him and lied about bot numbers and its advertising base, prompting the Tesla CEO to rescind his acquisition offer.
However, Twitter, on Thursday, August 5th, dropped its response to Musk’s accusations, preempting the countersuit. It’s safe to say that the social media company’s lawyers aren’t playing games.
According to Twitter, Musk is cherry-picking numbers and misrepresenting the way its online ad system operates.
In regards to the bot situation, Twitter says that Musk’s team used an online tool called “Botometer” that utilizes different criteria when assessing bots. The company adds that Musk himself labelled the online tool as “highly likely to be a bot” itself.
The platform says that the false data about Twitter’s mDAU (monetizable daily active users) is a way for Musk to undercut the service. “The allegations … are Musk’s attempt to distort data received from Twitter to sponsor wild conclusions about Twitter’s mDAU, reflecting his apparent and inappropriate effort to use this litigation to undermine Twitter’s business,” reads Twitter’s response.
Further, Twitter says that Musk making stuff up about the social media giant isn’t healthy for business. “Musk abruptly changed his mind about joining Twitter’s board (after first negotiating an offer to join the board, accepting it in writing, and Tweeting that he was “looking forward” to taking the position), notified Mr. Agrawal of the same, and also notified Mr. Agrawal of his intent to make an offer to buy Twitter,” reads Twitter’s response.
Further refuting Musk’s claim that Twitter is a microblogging platform, Twitter said that its primary product is a “Global platform for real-time self-expression and conversation, including in the form of Tweets.”
Musk’s countersuit also claims that Twitter’s process for tallying bot and spam accounts is “shockingly thin,” saying that the platform uses a 100 account sample daily to estimate the prevalence of spam on the site. Twitter fired back saying that it “deploys an array of spam-detection capabilities that typically result in the removal of more than a million spam accounts each day during or shortly after creation, including both automated and manual reviews of accounts and activity on the Twitter platform.”
Musk’s lawyers are urging for their countersuit to be unsealed immediately.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Via: The Washington Post
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