Centi-billionaire Elon Musk provoked Twitter and challenged the corporate’s CEO Parag Agrawal to a “public debate” about pretend accounts and spam within the midst of a contentious authorized battle over a $44 billion acquisition.

Musk filed a bid with the Securities and Trade to amass Twitter again in April this 12 months. After the businesses agreed to maneuver forward with a take-private deal, Musk mentioned he was terminating his acquisition, and accused Twitter of presenting false numbers, together with in its SEC filings, pertaining to the quantity of monetizable each day lively customers, and the variety of spam and bot accounts on the social community.

Twitter then sued Musk in a Delaware chancery court docket to make sure the deal would undergo as promised, and Musk filed counterclaims and a countersuit there on July 29.

In a collection of tweets that Musk started posting simply earlier than 1 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6, Musk interacted with a fan who had summarized his accusations about Twitter together with that it was stonewalling him and giving him, “outdated information,” and “a pretend information set” when he requested the corporate for particulars about the way it tabulates mDAU, and estimates for spam and bot accounts.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote, “Good abstract of the issue. If Twitter merely supplies their methodology of sampling 100 accounts and the way they’re confirmed to be actual, the deal ought to proceed on unique phrases. Nonetheless, if it seems that their SEC filings are materially false, then it shouldn’t.”

By simply after 9 a.m. Saturday morning, Musk began a Twitter ballot asking his followers to vote on whether or not “[l]ess than 5% of Twitter each day customers are pretend/spam.” Respondents to the casual ballot might select one in every of Musk’s supplied solutions which learn both “Sure” adopted by three robotic emoji, or “Lmaooo no.” (The slang abbreviation “lmao” stands for “laughing my a– off.)

Musk additionally wrote Saturday morning: “I hereby problem @paraga to a public debate in regards to the Twitter bot share. Let him show to the general public that Twitter has <5% pretend or spam each day customers!”

Attorneys for Musk didn’t reply to requests to touch upon Saturday, and an lawyer for Twitter declined to touch upon Musk’s Saturday tweets. Twitter didn’t reply to a request for remark.

At an annual shareholder assembly for Tesla on Aug. 4, Musk was requested to discuss Twitter throughout a question-and-answer session that adopted a proxy vote.

He mentioned, drawing laughter from the viewers in attendance, “I clearly must be somewhat cautious what I say about Twitter as a result of there’s this lawsuit and stuff.” He confirmed that the one two publicly traded securities he owns are Tesla and Twitter.

After which he spoke as if he nonetheless needs to grow to be the proprietor of the social networking firm, a stark distinction to arguments made by Musk by way of his attorneys in authorized filings in Delaware by which Musk argues he shouldn’t must undergo with the deal.

On the Tesla 2022 shareholders’ assembly, Musk mentioned: “I believe within the case of Twitter since I exploit it lots, shoot myself within the foot lots, you already know, dig my grave, and so on. I believe it is — I do perceive the product fairly effectively, so I believe I’ve bought a great sense of the place to level the engineering staff at Twitter to make it radically higher.”

He added that Twitter would “assist speed up” a “fairly grand imaginative and prescient” he needed to construct a enterprise he’d been occupied with since his earliest years as a tech entrepreneur, X.com or X Company.

“Clearly that may very well be began from scratch,” he mentioned, “however I believe Twitter would assist speed up that by three to 5 years. So it is form of like one thing I’ve thought can be fairly helpful for a very long time. I do know what to do. Do not must have Twitter for that however, like I mentioned, it is in all probability at the least a three-year accelerant and I believe it is one thing that will likely be very helpful to the world.”

Musk did not go into any additional particulars at that assembly. Nonetheless, he reportedly mentioned throughout a city corridor assembly with Twitter workers in June this 12 months that he wished to develop Twitter’s person base to a billion individuals and noticed Twitter as a platform that would evolve into an app like China’s WeChat, a “tremendous app,” that comes with every thing from messaging, video and social media, to cellular and point-of-sales funds, with a sturdy app ecosystem.

Until they attain a settlement first, Twitter and Musk are headed for a five-day trial in Delaware that begins on Oct. 17. The decide ruling on the case is Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick.