Musk Says He Wants to ‘Defeat the Spam Bots’
Before the Tesla CEO began using the spam bots on Twitter’s platform as an excuse to get out of the acquisition deal, he cheerfully declared on April 21 that he would “defeat the spam bots or die trying!” Musk and Twitter announced their merger deal on April 25.
Musk had always known there were spam bots on Twitter, and frequently expressed annoyance with them. According to Twitter, on April 9, the day Musk announced he wanted to buy Twitter, he texted company board chairman Bret Taylor and stated that purging fake users from the platform had to be done once Twitter was a private company because it would “make the numbers look terrible.” Furthermore, on April 14, Musk said that eliminating spam bots would be a “top priority” for him at Twitter, the lawsuit states.
