Twitter's Lawyer Claims Elon Musk's Submitted Data About Fake Accounts Are Having No Strong Evidence

Elon Musk and Twitter are back in court. (photo: screenshot/ary)

JAKARTA – The battle between Elon Musk and Twitter Inc, is open again. The social media lawyer stated that the Tesla CEO's accusations against fake accounts on Twitter, which were much higher than 5 Twitters, were not based on accurate facts.

This is what Twitter's lawyers told the judge on Tuesday, September 27. Even though Musk used the accusations as one of his reasons for terminating the agreement to acquire the microblogging platform for $44 billion (IDR 659 trillion) last July.

Twitter lawyers told judges in a Delaware court that documents obtained from two data scientists employed by Musk show they estimated the number of fake accounts on the platform at 5.3% to 11%.

"None of these analyzes, as far as we know, support what Musk said to Twitter and announced in the termination letter," said Twitter attorney Bradley Wilson, as quoted by Reuters.

Musk and his lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the report.

Musk and Twitter are locked in a court battle and Twitter is seeking an injunction directing Musk to close a deal to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. Twitter shares ended Tuesday's trading at 42.09 dollars, up 1.4%.

Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter for $44 billion but has complained in recent weeks that the number of bot accounts is much higher than Twitter's estimate of less than 5% of users.

On July 8 Musk said the real figure was "significantly higher" and that Twitter had misled him, allowing him to halt the acquisition without penalty of an already done deal.

Wilson brought up a report by a data scientist during a hearing in which both parties asked the judge to order the other party to submit more messages or documents.

On Tuesday, a court notice said Musk's deposition was being rescheduled from this week to October 6-7. Musk's deposition is expected to be a key part of the litigation. In past testimony, he has made aggressive statements under oath.

Brian Quinn, a professor at Boston College Law School, said the timing of the deposition was important, and Twitter might be better off delaying Musk's summons as a witness until all data is collected.

"You will delay your best witness for the end of the trial, as much as possible, so that you have all the findings," Quinn said.