Musk’s Latest Move Might Be ‘Unbelievably Crippling’ to Twitter Regardless of How It Plays Out – Opinion

Since news first broke that Elon Musk was considering a hostile takeover of Twitter, I haven’t been able to figure out if I’ve most wanted to see censorship-crazed Twitter screwed as badly as possible, or see Musk win — yet again — never deterred by the naysayers who doubt him. I think I’ve decided it’s a toss-up.

Musk’s advisors on Friday sent a letter to Twitter notifying the company that Musk was terminating their $44 billion “merger agreement,” citing insufficient data on “fake or spam accounts,” as reported by RedState. CNBC reports that Twitter quickly responded, warning him to sue Musk, if he fails to follow through with his formal attempts to end the deal. The “fake or spam accounts” issue has been a sticking point for Musk since at least early May. Musk claims Twitter does not provide him with correct data.

What the hell? These are “fake or spam accounts”? As reported by my colleague Bob Hoge, the “bots” issue is well beyond much ado about nothing — or nitpicking — on the part of Elon Musk.

In late April, Twitter estimated that fake accounts and spam “accounted for less than 5 percent of its daily active users in the fourth quarter of 2021.” However, with a user base of at least 330 million, that’s still an awful lot of non-human accounts (16.5 million for the math-challenged). Musk claims that the number is higher than this, but Twitter won’t tell the truth.

The Washington Post’s May article entitled Why Spam Bots Are Top of Elon Musk’s Twitter Hit List, described “bots” thusly:

Bots on Twitter are artificial accounts that send tweets and follow others. They can also like or retweet posts from other people. These actions can be used by spam bots to engage with deceptive and harmful activities. Spam bots may tweet continuously in order to generate traffic for their product or service website. They could also be used for spreading misinformation and promoting political messages.

Bots are actually allowed on Twitter, noted WaPo, but under the company’s policy, such accounts aresupposed to be an indication that they’re automated. Yeah, I’m gonna call BS. Given that I’m not an IT expert, and given the respective professional reputations of Elon Musk and Twitter, I’m going with Elon, on this one.

So let’s get back to what I believe is an honest question. Why would Twitter sue Musk for walking away from a hostile takeover that the Big Tech “giant” tried its damnedest to stop from happening?

Either way, Fox News host and OutKick founder Clay Travis believes Musk has Twitter right where he has wanted it from the beginning: between an “unbelievably crippling” rock and a hard place.

Travis shared his thoughts with Jesse Watters (Fox News) during Friday’s appearance, reports the Right Scoop. Travis revealed to Watters that Musk has enormous resources. Big enough to crack open Twitter’s data one way or the other, which, Travis noted, could be “crippling” to the company. Right Scoop has transcribed the following:

The practical impact here, if it doesn’t end up happening, Jesse, is Elon Musk can really be destructive to the overall Twitter brand and business. Because unlike you and me and the vast majority of people who use Twitter, he’s got the engineers and data analysts to be able to review what you basically call the ‘fire hose’ of data that was relinquished to him to allow him to try to determine how many of the accounts on this platform are real, how many are fake, how many of them are spam, bots, versus actual real people.

There’s the “rock.” And the “hard place”? Travis:

To me, Elon Musk publishing any data he might have discovered as part of his investigation could prove to be devastating for Twitter’s overall effectiveness. Remember, only 20% of Americans – even based on Twitter’s own numbers – are on Twitter. One in 50 American people never sends out a single tweet. We’re talking about 2% roughly of the American public. It’s not as big as you would think that it might be.

Translation: Twitter’s ad revenue would collapse faster than Joe Biden’s approval ratings, post-Musk, if Elon ever decides to make public the social media company’s Real reach. 

So once again, would I rather see the Musk-Twitter deal saved, and Musk take the company private, as planned, or would I rather see Musk destroy the left-wing, conservative-censoring social media self-proclaimed “giant”?

Damn. I’m going to have to think about this for a while.