Twitter to Provide Elon Musk With 'Firehose' of Raw Data on Tweets: Reports

This comes after Musk threatened to walk away from the deal if Twitter did not provide data on spam, fake accounts.

File image of Elon Musk.

(Photo: The Quint)

Social media giant Twitter has decided to provide Tesla CEO Elon Musk access to its "firehose" of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets to ensure that the deal struck between the company and Musk – worth $44 billion - pushes through, multiple reports suggested.

This comes after Musk, on 6 June, threatened to walk away from the deal if the company failed to provide data on spam and fake accounts.

In a letter to Twitter, Musk's lawyers said that the company was in "clear material breach" of its obligations and that the Tesla CEO had all rights to terminate the agreement, as per Reuters.

The letter from Musk's lawyers also said that the company was actively resisting and thwarting Musk's information rights.

Twitter's reported offer could thus reduce the likelihood of Musk's attempts at using spam bots to prevent the deal from succeeding.

Twitter Deal 'On Hold'

On 13 May, Musk had tweeted that the "Twitter deal is temporarily on hold" with a link to a report about the microblogging site's claim that spam and fake accounts represent less than 5 percent of its users. However, he had said that he was still committed to the acquisition.

Removing such accounts was one of Musk's promises to Twitter users. "A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter," he had said at a TED conference.

On 25 April, Musk had signed a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, at $54.20 per share, after weeks of uncertainty. However, the deal is far from coming to a close.

(With inputs from Reuters.)