Says fake/spam accounts could be much higher than 20%, four times Twitter's claim, and that the deal can't move forward until Twitter shows proof of <5%.
"20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher."
Did Twitter exaggerate its user numbers?
Q635 answers2022-2025
Short answer
He thought Twitter was exaggerating its numbers. After closing he did an internal analysis; he did not go beyond public statements with advertisers or PwC.
All 5 answers, oldest to newest
He said Twitter still has a bot and spam problem, including crypto scams and people running hundreds of accounts. Anything that affects the monetizable daily user number is his biggest concern.
"an ongoing challenge or twitter with um with bot what accounts and spam accounts"
He says Twitter cut off telcos with heavy 2FA SMS fraud, which had been inflating fake users and costs.
"we're not going to spend $60 million a year on literally SMS texts outside of North America."
He says requiring payment raises the cost of bots by several orders of magnitude.
"It raises the cost of bots by several orders of magnitude, maybe by 1,000 or 10,000."
He thought Twitter was exaggerating its numbers. After closing he did an internal analysis; he did not go beyond public statements with advertisers or PwC.
"I thought that Twitter was exaggerating their numbers"