Elon Musk’s Deal To Buy Twitter In Serious Jeopardy

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – The deal of the world’s richest man to buy social networking site Twitter is reportedly in serious jeopardy in a setback for critics demanding more freedom of expression.

The Washington Post newspaper quoted three people familiar with the matter as saying the camp of Elon Musk concluded that Twitter’s figures on spam accounts are not verifiable.

Musk’s team stopped engaging in specific discussions around funding for the $44 billion deal, including with a party named as a likely backer, one of the people said.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing discussions, The Washington Post said. Other sources also reported difficulties in the talks.

As the tensions over fake accounts mounted, Twitter revealed Thursday that it is suspending more than 1 million spam accounts daily.

The new figure, confirmed by the social media platform on Thursday, represents a doubling of its previous update. Its chief executive, Parag Agrawal, said in May that spam account suspensions were running at 500,000 a day.

ACQUISITION ON HOLD

Musk explained recently that the acquisition of Twitter was temporarily on hold. He said in a May tweet that the “Twitter deal [is] temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”

Twitter has just under 230 million daily active users, according to official estimates.

The company says it has given Musk access to a stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted every day to answer his concerns.

Before turmoil emerged, Twitter shares gained as much as 3.4 percent to $39.51 after the stock dropped 12 percent this year amid broader declines in the financial market.

The troubles were due to disappoint Christian commentators and conservatives who say they are among those who were banned from the Twitter platform for alleged violations of its guidelines.

Among the other, more prominent voices to lose his Twitter account was then President Donald J. Trump.

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