Elon Musk Files Advertising Company As Witness In Trial Against Twitter

JAKARTA - Elon Musk, seeking to abandon his deal to acquire Twitter Inc, is seeking documents from an advertising technology company as part of his efforts to get more information about bot and spam accounts on Twitter, on Thursday, August 18.

Twitter has sued Tesla's chief executive, who accuses Twitter of withholding information about how to calculate the percentage of bots on the service, for trying to walk away from a $44 billion deal. Their trial is scheduled for October 17.

Musk's attorneys have called Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify to obtain any documents or communications regarding their involvement in reviewing accounts or participation in any audit of Twitter's user base.

IAS and DoubleVerify, both of which are based in New York, use technology to independently verify that digital ads are being viewed by real people or bots. Advertisers use the service to ensure the ads they pay for are seen by potential customers and not automated bots.

Twitter, IAS and DoubleVerify did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In response to a tweet by a user questioning how Twitter audits its service and also linking to a Reuters news story about Musk targeting ad companies, Musk tweeted: "That's a question Twitter is doing everything possible to avoid an answer..."

In a counterclaim earlier this month, Musk claimed that Twitter's monetizable daily active users were only 65 million. The amount is lower than the company's touted. Twitter said it supported the disclosure.

This metric measures users who log into Twitter through websites or apps that can serve ads or use paid products such as subscriptions, according to Twitter submissions.