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Twitter Sues Elon Musk over Attempt to Walk Away from $44B Deal

11 points by camjohnson26 4y ago

johng 4y ago
Does anyone honestly believe that only 5% of the Twitter accounts are bots/fake? If it is just generally accepted that this is the case (and I've seen it mentioned everywhere) -- how does Twitter get away with using this figure to compute their DAU's. The SEC should come down on them for this since it's material to their stock price, not to mention this deal? I can't believe I don't see more scrutiny about this.
- paulpauper 4y ago
  It depends how it's defined. There are obvious bots, and then also artificial/fake engagement, which is like smarter bots or low-paid humans
- TheAlchemist 4y ago
  Frankly, I wouldn't be shocked, but it certainly depends on the measure used. I suppose a lot of people on Twitter are just there for reading, never posting anything. Bots are posting a lot, so are much more visible. Anyway, it's not the point of the lawsuit anyway - it's not material at all for the deal, as far as I know.
- th0ma5 4y ago
  Yeah this is indeed the big misunderstanding. What is responsible for most negative stuff on Twitter is activity on Twitter coordinated from outside of Twitter by users of Twitter. This appears as it some kind of automation because it is endless amounts of people saying the same things like "Trump is guilty of intimidating witnesses" or "Elon haters say the same thing all the time" ... Take a look at any local TV or Radio station Twitter account and they are endlessly replied to with the same talking points. But these are otherwise regular normal people who feel they are participating. But they usually aren't very representative of the public as a whole.
- Imnimo 4y ago
  Well, first of all, the claim has never been that only 5% of all Twitter accounts are fake. It's been that only 5% of what Twitter reports as monetizable daily active users are fake. Twitter already filters out a great many users (include many of the fake/bot accounts) from this figure. Think about it in reverse - you find it unbelievable that if Twitter were lying so boldly about fake accounts that there wouldn't be more scrutiny. There is not scrutiny. Therefore, you should conclude that perhaps Twitter is not lying in the way you seem to believe.
- anonymousab 4y ago
  > Does anyone honestly believe that only 5% of the Twitter accounts are bots/fake? No, and Twitter doesn't either, and they didn't claim anything of the sort. They said that <~5% MDAU are bots," based on an internal review of a sample of accounts and we apply significant judgment in making this determination". Which does not preclude the possibility of, like, 99% of the actual users being bots because MDAU is a tiny, tiny fraction of overall users to begin with.

11 points by camjohnson26 4y ago

Does anyone honestly believe that only 5% of the Twitter accounts are bots/fake? If it is just generally accepted that this is the case (and I've seen it mentioned everywhere) -- how does Twitter get away with using this figure to compute their DAU's. The SEC should come down on them for this since it's material to their stock price, not to mention this deal? I can't believe I don't see more scrutiny about this.

paulpauper 4y ago
It depends how it's defined. There are obvious bots, and then also artificial/fake engagement, which is like smarter bots or low-paid humans
TheAlchemist 4y ago
Frankly, I wouldn't be shocked, but it certainly depends on the measure used. I suppose a lot of people on Twitter are just there for reading, never posting anything. Bots are posting a lot, so are much more visible. Anyway, it's not the point of the lawsuit anyway - it's not material at all for the deal, as far as I know.
th0ma5 4y ago
Yeah this is indeed the big misunderstanding. What is responsible for most negative stuff on Twitter is activity on Twitter coordinated from outside of Twitter by users of Twitter. This appears as it some kind of automation because it is endless amounts of people saying the same things like "Trump is guilty of intimidating witnesses" or "Elon haters say the same thing all the time" ... Take a look at any local TV or Radio station Twitter account and they are endlessly replied to with the same talking points. But these are otherwise regular normal people who feel they are participating. But they usually aren't very representative of the public as a whole.
Imnimo 4y ago
Well, first of all, the claim has never been that only 5% of all Twitter accounts are fake. It's been that only 5% of what Twitter reports as monetizable daily active users are fake. Twitter already filters out a great many users (include many of the fake/bot accounts) from this figure. Think about it in reverse - you find it unbelievable that if Twitter were lying so boldly about fake accounts that there wouldn't be more scrutiny. There is not scrutiny. Therefore, you should conclude that perhaps Twitter is not lying in the way you seem to believe.
anonymousab 4y ago
> Does anyone honestly believe that only 5% of the Twitter accounts are bots/fake? No, and Twitter doesn't either, and they didn't claim anything of the sort. They said that <~5% MDAU are bots," based on an internal review of a sample of accounts and we apply significant judgment in making this determination". Which does not preclude the possibility of, like, 99% of the actual users being bots because MDAU is a tiny, tiny fraction of overall users to begin with.