Twitter Offers To Give Musk Raw Daily Tweet Data

According to news reports, Twitter plans to give Elon Musk access to its "firehose" of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets in an effort to accelerate the Tesla billionaire's $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Photo Insert: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (center) in 2005

The data sharing agreement was not confirmed by lawyers involved in the transaction. Musk did not respond on Twitter, despite previously being vocal about various aspects of the deal.

Twitter declined to confirm the reports, citing a Monday statement in which the company stated that it is still "cooperatively" sharing information with Musk.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has stated that the company has consistently estimated that less than 5% of its accounts are spam. Musk, on the other hand, has disputed that figure, claiming in a May tweet – without providing evidence – that 20% or more of Twitter's accounts are fake.

Musk, who signed a legally binding agreement to buy Twitter in April, believes the transaction cannot go forward unless the company provides more information about the prevalence of fake accounts on its platform.

He has claimed, without providing evidence, that Twitter has vastly underestimated the number of "spam bots" (automated accounts that typically promote scams and misinformation) on its platform.

According to Spark Toro, a tech market research firm, up to 70% of Musk's Twitter followers are spam, bots, or fake accounts. This is the highest figure so far, compared to 41% for those with 96 million to 120 million followers.

Citing a person familiar with the matter, the Washington Post was the first to report Twitter's plan to give Musk full access to the "firehose." According to other reports, the billionaire may only have limited access.

The reported offer from Twitter could blunt Musk's attempts to use the spam bot issue to cast doubt on the deal's future. This week, Musk's lawyers accused Twitter of refusing to provide information about the true number of bot accounts on the platform.

When reached Wednesday afternoon, Mike Ringler, the Palo Alto, California, attorney who signed the Monday letter, told the AP he was not at liberty to comment.

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