Twitter is removing more than 1 million spam accounts each day, executives of the social media company told reporters in a briefing on Thursday, as the company says, as reported by Reuters.
The briefing comes after billionaire Elon Musk is asking for proof that Twitter bot accounts were fewer than 5% of the total. After Musk offered $44 billion to buy Twitter and take the company private the deal is on hold, pending on further information on fake accounts.
Analysts speculate that Musk’s claims can be a strategy to lower the price. Twitter has about 300 million active accounts.
The company reiterated that spam accounts were about 5% of users, a figure that has been unchanged since 2013. Musk has said that over 20% of Twitter’s accounts can be fake, without presenting evidence.
Tesla’s CEO previously tweeted that one of his biggest priorities after acquiring Twitter is to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.” He also anticipated big changes in Twitter if he takes control of the platform.
Fake social media accounts affect both advertisers and are also used to amplify messages and spread disinformation.
