Why is Twitter not providing this data? It’s a straightforward request and it’s not like he would disclose it publicly. It feels like Twitter is trying to get out of the sale by using loopholes, this is very strange.
You really think he wouldn't disclose it publicly if he thought it benefited him/for the lulz? He's exactly the kind of person who would just get the papers and publish them immediately.
Please assume good faith... Also if he was going to buy it, why would he do that? If he wasn't going to buy it, well if Twitter provides it, then he's forced to buy it so it doesn't matter if he reveals it or not.
I'm assuming that the OP is posting the question in good faith - Musk on the other hand has a track record of disclosing private information for fun/retaliation, whether or not it's legal for him to do so. "Assume good faith" doesn't mean you have to overlook everything about the situation when discussing the situation.
I'm not asserting that Musk would do anything illegal in this case, just that there's a reason the Twitter board may not want to give him private data. It's not obvious that he wouldn't disclose, either directly or implicitly, anything he's given.
Didn't he literally break the NDA with Twitter with some data they did give him? If I didn't dream that up, that alone proves there is no reason to believe in good faith on his part.
If I had to speculate: a) Twitter is not obligated to provide this data to Musk (he waived his right to due diligence, after all); b) Musk appears to be trying as hard as he can to wriggle out of the deal, whether by renegotiating to a lower sales price or finding some loophole to extricate himself for the other; and c) there's no real upside to providing the data to Musk.
If this went to court, Musk definitely has the weaker legal position here: he signed a deal that obligates him to buy Twitter at a certain price contingent pretty much only on being able to actually obtain financing, and (despite recent market events), that financing doesn't look hard for him to get.
What makes you think Twitter isn't actually providing the data, doesn't want to believe it, and -- in the end -- this is just yet more bluster from Musk?
Evaluating bots seems like the sort of thing you'd want IP addresses for; should he get an export of everyone's IP list, including journalists and other critics he's publicly feuded with?
Or Twitter management is operating in standard SV mode, aka ”if we say there are no bots, then there are no bots”
I pity the poor engineers who get the task. ”Hey Claire we need a report by tomorrow 8am that shows we only have under 5% bots. If there are more, just figure out a way to hide them. PS We are not telling you to falsify data, we are just making it very clear that these are the numbers we need, and you are indeed easily fired”
No, they disclose a metric called monetizable MAU which already excludes a vast number of bots, to the best of their ability. Then they estimate that no more than 5% of those monetizable MAU are bots. The lower that drive that number, the greater the number of genuine users that get excluded as bots.