Nunes on Musk’s Twitter bot problem: $44B price tag ‘hard to justify’ with fake accounts
Twitter to reportedly provide Elon Musk with ‘firehose’ of internal user data
Twitter’s price tag ‘hard to justify’ with bot problem: Nunes
Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes predicts the number of fake Twitter accounts is closer to 95%.
After Elon Musk’s Twitter bid was reportedly put on hold over threats around a lack of information regarding fake accounts, Trump Media & Technology CEO Devin Nunes backed the billionaires' concerns on "Mornings with Maria" Friday.
"That $44 billion price tag, it's tough to justify when there's so many bots and fake accounts," Nunes told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
On Wednesday, Musk appeared to score a victory after the social media giant agreed to hand over a "firehose" of internal data on fake and spam accounts, as reported by The Washington Post.
While Twitter had previously reported to the SEC that fake accounts made up less than 5% of its users, Musk – and Nunes – have argued that number to be untrue, with Musk believing it’s closer to 20%.
TWITTER TO GIVE ELON MUSK INTERNAL DATA ON SPAM, FAKE ACCOUNTS: REPORT
"I'm going to stick with this, that it's going to be a lot closer to being 95% bots than it is going to be 5% bots," Nunes said.
Trump Media & Technology CEO Devin Nunes argues Twitter's $44 billion price tag has become "hard to justify" with spam account concerns on "Mornings with Maria" Friday, June 10, 2022. (Getty Images)
The CEO, who oversees social media platform Truth Social, asserted the company is "constantly having to fight that battle" against bots, and explained how the fake accounts contribute to "astroturfing."
"It starts with a fake news narrative. It runs through the fake news, they produce fake news stories and then they shove it into places like Twitter that just becomes a sewer," Nunes noted. "And I think that's the challenge Elon Musk is going to have."
Nunes also discussed former President Donald Trump’s thoughts on Musk’s Twitter takeover.
"President Trump and I have been very clear, look, we're all for it," the CEO said. "Our mission at Truth Social is to open the internet back up, give the American people their voice back."
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Every tech company will inevitably face a spam or bot "problem," Nunes asserted, but the "mission" should remain to recruit real people and their voices to your respective platform.
"We know where the users are," Nunes pointed out. "They're on Instagram, and they're on TikTok. And for our business, that's where we have to go."