Bloomberg News reports:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he opened an investigation of Twitter, claiming the social media platform may be misleading people with false reporting of its bot accounts, violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The Republican attorney general announced the probe the same day Twitter would-be buyer, billionaire Elon Musk, threatened to pull out of his deal to purchase the company, saying it wasn’t meeting his demands for more information about spam and fake accounts.
In regulatory filings Twitter reported fewer than 5% of all users are bots, while they may make up as much as 20%, Paxton said in a press release.
Read the full article. Don’t be surprised if one day we learn that Musk paid Paxton to do this in order to justify bailing on the Twitter deal.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he opened an investigation of Twitter, saying the platform may be misleading people with false reporting of its bot accounts https://t.co/Y6COiWoR4q
— Bloomberg (@business) June 6, 2022
Today I’m investigating Twitter for potentially misleading Texans on the number of its “bot” users. I have a duty to protect Texans if Twitter is misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up their revenue.https://t.co/OZbwdV3pnY
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) June 6, 2022
Must get rid of Twitter bots to protect Texans
Semi Automatic weapons – you can stay https://t.co/od0ts09Npd— Michelle Stephenson (@MishStephenson) June 7, 2022
Elon: I would like you to do us a favor, though.
Ken: It was a perfect call. https://t.co/CwjUocftwS— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) June 7, 2022
Reminder that TX AG Ken Paxton is under indictment for felony fraud and that 19 children were murdered in Texas a week ago because America worships guns. This witch hunt is a bullshit distraction, but also a criminal waste of resources. https://t.co/fTrzXQgdro
— Andrew L. Seidel (@AndrewLSeidel) June 7, 2022
So – protecting Musk trumps protecting kids.
Noted https://t.co/fiCwEgHLxp— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) June 6, 2022