Irish Examiner view: Twitter takeover is a game of numbers 

Elon Musk demanding clarity on fake accounts

Elon Musk: Latest debacle may be a negotiating tactic. Picture: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

A €42bn takeover; a heavily used social media platform; an egotistical billionaire with an ambiguous definition of free speech. What could possibly go wrong?

What could scupper the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk is the failure to provide validated user numbers and to identify the fake accounts that permeate the internet giant’s projections about its user base.

Musk has said “this deal cannot move forward” until Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, shows proof of its claims that fewer than 5% of 229m accounts are spam or fake. In response to a tweet suggesting the number of fake accounts could be over 50%, Musk said “exactly”.

While his latest intervention has been interpreted as a negotiating tactic to drive down the $54.20 a share bid, there may be a long way to go before there is clarity about the future of the world summed up in 280 characters.