I think most people agree, the request from Elon Musk to see the background data from Twitter, used to evaluate bots and fake accounts, was entirely reasonable.
Twitter’s prior position that they would not permit Musk’s team to see the data stream was in ordinary violation of the terms of purchase. It would seem to be commonsense that Musk has every right to inspect the data and evaluate Twitter’s prior assertions.
WASHINGTON POST – After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter’s board plans to comply with Elon Musk’s demands for internal data by offering access to its full “firehose,” the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the state of negotiations.
The move aims to end a standoff with the billionaire, who has threatened to pull out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter unless the company provides access to data he says is necessary to evaluate the number of fake users on the platform.
The firehose could be provided as soon as this week, the person said. Currently some two dozen companies pay for access to the trove, which comprises not only a real-time record of tweets but the devices they tweet from, as well as information about the accounts that tweet.
[…] Twitter’s leaders are skeptical of Musk’s ability to use the fire hose to find previously undetected information: The data stream has been available for years to some two dozen companies, which pay Twitter for the ability to analyze it to find patterns and insights in the daily conversation. They, along with some analysts and Silicon Valley insiders, say that Musk is using the data requests as a pretext to wiggle out of the deal or to negotiate a lower price. (read more)
Maybe it’s the skeptic in me. Or maybe I just don’t trust companies that work hand in hand with government entities behind the scenes while telling everyone nothing to see. But, Elon has been asking for this information. They drag their feet and put up a wall. Then all of a sudden- here you go.
The way Twitter coordinates with government agencies….who is to say the data has not and is not manipulated by those same government entities to hide the issues?
I think they are hoping that Musks analysts are just completely overwhelmed by the data stream and then they just throw up their hands and go away.
I don’t think they will be. They have a very good idea of how much data is involved in this and they are prepared to crunch the information. 500 million records is not that much data. I can put 100 million records on my PC in a MYSQL database and go to town on it no problem. Musk will get his answer and it will be accurate.
In just one SaaS service for the company I work for, I crunch 54 billion records on demand; generally in under a minute.
I’m thinking the twits were just buying time to take out the code that split the data to include the NSA database. After making a copy of everything first of course.
ELon took the # of tweets x average length and came up w/50 GB. 25% of the size of my PC hard drive – easy to put on a single flash drive. child’s play for a sophisticated analyst.
Good luck with that. Data can be handled if you have the right people handling it. Software does not seem to be Musk’s weakness!
Good luck, Musk has programmers who auto land spacecraft and self drive cars. Probably a walk in the park for them.
Almost certainly Musk/team will be looking for “anomalies” in the provided data stream. Easy enough to do data comparisons between the current data stream to the earlier ones say same time last year to look for changes, discrepancies, etc. One thing about data… its pretty much around forever and you’re never quite sure who’s got it.
like checking out the DNA of the “Coronavirus”!
Looks 5150-ish.
5150!
That’s a real thing – people tattoo that on their arms and elsewhere
That was my first thought. They needed time to fiddle with the data before allowing Elon to access what they wanted him to see. What they removed or hid must be really damning!
Exactly Barb….these are the same people (inside and outside of government) that have declared the 1400 hours of footage from the Capitol Building on Jan 6th cant’ be shared. You know cuz national security and stuff…
If they removed data and he buys the company he will eventually find that out. Criminal charges would follow so I don’t think they will try that.
You don’t think a company that has been coordinating with U.S. government agencies in secret behind the scenes would try to hide data?
You know the same agencies who said Russia, Russia, Russia for four years, the same agencies who had 51 people who came out to say Hunter’s laptop is not real, the same agencies who have imprisoned without due process people for at the worst trespassing, the same agencies who let illegals go unfettered into the U.S., and THE SAME AGENCIES WHO HAVE HID FROM THE PUBLIC GHISLAINE MAXWELL’S CLIENT LIST.
Elon seems to be a step ahead. We’ll see.
I can appreciate your perspective but as the Texas AG has made public that they are investigating Twitter for fraudulently charging companies for a product that they did not receive through deception, things could get “aligned” rather quickly!
Let’s hope there isn’t some technical trick up the boards slimy sleeves.
I can’t imagine a bigger false hope than that one.
Fortunately if they sanitize the data there are still the logs which will show who what and where any manipulation has been done in the past few weeks/months/years. But this does not quell shareholder law suits. Twitter has admitted publicly the amount (5%) of spam, bots, duplicate accounts, etc. If Musk finds otherwise then that will be used in court against the board who will not be covered by any insurance because of the fraud. In other words, they are personally liable. That’s why Jack has washed his hands and stepped down. He’s probably rat holing his take so no one can get to it which would create another problem for him since it is criminal to do so. Now wouldn’t that be an interest scenario…Jack Dorsey in jail for stock manipulation.
Musk’s Techies would need the SERVER LOGS of ALL the to accurately estimate how many are bots and not bots…that would be a VERY FUN project…
I gather that he has the numbers and qualified personnel to do just that. This should be interesting.
Oh goody – my post was not approved. Let me try again.
The electric free speech god is a hypocrite. He has over 91 million followers on Twitter. How many do ya’all think are bots? Connect the dots – He has used those bots to pump the stock of Telsa.
25-75% of Musk’s “followers” may be fakes, according to published estimates.
50% of Biden’s followers may be fakes.
So, Musk has cause for concern. Imagine the potential for lawsuits to recover excessively high advertising fees + damages. Imagine the blow to ad fees when it becomes known fakes make up xx% of Twitter accounts.
Let me help you connect the dots. One more time – Elon Musk has use bots to pump Tesla Stock. One more time. Elon Musk has used bots to pump Tesla Stock. I don’t care about Joe Biden’s Twitter account or any advertisers. ONE MORE TIME: Elon Musk used Bots to pump Telsa Stock. Tesla is not worth the total combination of the top 10 care companies in the world. No way.
Why don’t you try and prove me wrong. You snide remarks leads me to believe that you are unable to refute the facts that I posted. But I will post it one more time in CAPS for your enjoyment: ELON MUSK USED TWTTER BOTS TO PUMP TELSA STOCK.
Those fake followers could be created BY Twitter, could they not – they perhaps think the Power of the Bot is so hot and compelling that no one would want to disavow all those followers that obviously love the followee – maybe they (Twitter) were also using inflated followings to subdue criticism – people that want to “be stroked” would go along with it, being blithely unaware – Elon could find out how many of his own supposed followers are bots, for starters.
Musk has done more for humanity than Jesus. Whatever you’re saying is just nonsense. Get a clue.
That statement to those of us who are Christians is blasphemy. Apparently you don’t realize what you are saying.
Ohhhh…. they know!
Suggest it is you that should “get a clue” with that statement
Okay I will play your silly game – what Has the electric free speech god done? What has he invented or done – be very very careful as I probably know more about the electric free speech god than you do as I don’t run on emotions – facts only. I ANXIOUSLY AWAIT YOUR FACTUAL RESPONSE.
AOL did much the same thing. Back when they were the world’s supplier of free floppy disks … (bonus points if you’re a millennial and you even know what a ‘floppy disk’ is) … they were counting every floppy they mailed out as a “subscriber.”
They say that when Ted Turner learned about this at a board meeting, a “justifiable homicide” almost happened then and there … 🤡
I fully expect that “social media” companies have been lying about their subscriber count, and activity levels, almost since the beginning. “It’s their word against theirs,” so fraud is easily possible. Therefore, it is inevitable.
Heh… yeah.. AOL…. somewhere in my old stuff, I have an AOL CD in Japanese… hehe… thought there was something weird about it.
Shareholders were cueing up lawsuits against the board if they did not do this. This is a major CYA moment for them.
Also the AG of Texas announced a legal action again Twitter. Their backs were to the wall and forced to do this. BTW, a “fire hose” of data is an old trick used to hide/obscure/bury relevant info deep in the recesses of overwhelming numbers. But I am sure Elon has this. Can’t wait to see what he does next.
Twitter dragged their feet on this, then finally agreed? Uh huh. All they need to do is pre-filter the firehose to exclude any information they don’t want him to see. Sounds to me like they’ve come up with a way to sanitize that data, and just need to apply it. Twitter needs to hide the evidence, but I’m sure they don’t want to dismantle the bot network in the hopes that the sale doesn’t go through. I wouldn’t trust what they offered without verification.
If I were Musk, I’d insist on seeing the source code that is used to provide the interface to the firehose to verify all information is actually being provided, and nothing is getting filtered out. Also, I really hope Musk has come up with some good litmus tests to verify he’s been given access to ALL of the data as required.
If Twitter is “Jaws” then I would not be surprised to see Elon bring his OWN firehouse, a better and bigger one!
What Elon wanted to see, took time to alter, before his teams inspection…
Twitter is made up of millions of fake accounts.. The advertisers are being screwed and that’s a big deal legally..
They cannot and will not be able to fake this. Musk will have a team of experts to generate a report on what he finds.
I predict they will offer to let him out of the deal with no penalty next.
Throw in the NSA’s role in the entire operation, and I don’t see anyway they let this sale happen. If social media companies were invented on their own without government involvement from the beginning, I’d be amazed.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/then-and-now-a-history-of-social-networking-sites/12/
They knew this would be the death of Twitter and didn’t know how to respond. They know they are trapped but tried to delay in order to find a way out. The truth will come out…. don’t worry, you won’t be surprised if you are here. We already knew this was going on.
Musk’s purchase of Twitter is critical to the survival of the 1A, and possibly, by extension, the Republic herself.
I wonder if a recently filed lawsuit by the AG of Texas has anything to do with Twitter’s sudden change of heart ….
Oh, and Twitter, don’t underestimate the resources of the world’s richest man …
Looks like twitter management got afraid of potential shareholder derivative suits if they didn’t furnish the information; hence, they caved
Months? That’s a long time to plan a getaway.
I’ve always wandered, why Elon would pay so much for such a ridiculous company, when for that much money he could easily have hire top programmers and wrote a much better program, for a quarter of that??? Now, I see, the large price was the only way to open Twitter up, first they start with the poison pills, then you can’t see the data, now dozen companies already sees this data, ha, Elon already knew all of this beforehand. He knew the alphabet soup “companies” were mining all of this, and he also knew the bot 5% was fake, it all makes sense now, except what is Elons end game, that still puzzles me??? Maybe he was going to integrate it into Startlink?? Or was it the links into the dozen “Companies”???
Regarding being puzzled: “Necessity is the mother of invention”.Goofy term to use I know, but I too think along the lines of your last two sentences. IMO, Elon has been frustrated over operational / growth issues.
It seems probable that the twitter wokesters think they’ll be able to slow-walk and/or bambooozle Musk’s engineers into buying bogus data and code. Call me a skeptic, but until I hear Musk sound the ‘All clear’, I’ll take a wait-and-see stand.
Dear Washington Post
Are you familiar with your own thinking?
Sincerely,
Ani Namity
Or, He has now found the best data from which those two dozen companies who have been paying for data mining. Including .gov entities.
I have read a lot of posts. I see Twitter may have had some reality therapy
The botness numbers need to be published in Footnotes to financials
Then they need to post contingent liability risks re shareholder litigation
Their CPA’s are at risk. That means the CPA’s may have told them to re-state financials.
If some major advertizers have been scrood, that means they slow pay or stop pay and A/R for advertising gets adjusted.
So this “deal” is not a done deal. It can crumble and shareholders miss their windfall.
Twitter is also at risk of going out of business. They lose a lot of money and issue bonds to pay expenses.
I don’t trust Elon yet. He is smart, he is effective at creating attention, impressive at the feats his companies have accomplished, effective at manipulating public opinion — which is unusual for someone “on the spectrum”
What we don’t know is everyone’s agenda to the full depth. I think PDJT and Elon, and some others have done some serious damage to the enemies of this country and democracy — at least in bringing awareness.
They are also impressive in their ability to effect change and produce results. This is the very definition of the American Dream cause by a republic, free market, and small government.
Right now, I’m rooting for Elon, but I don’t trust him fully. I just trust him more than the other players in his arena