The SEC asked Twitter to explain its user metrics after Elon Musk complained
- This summer, the SEC conducted an active review of Twitter’s user numbers in response to concerns of bot activity, as revealed in new filings made public on Wednesday. The review came in the weeks after Elon Musk raised concerns over the same user figures and suggests federal regulators took Musk’s allegations seriously.
- Notably, the review began more than a week before the full whistleblower report by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, although it deals with many of the same concerns he reported to the SEC.
- “We note your estimate that the average number of false or spam accounts during fiscal 2021 continues to represent fewer than 5% of mDAU,” the commission wrote to Twitter in a letter dated June 15th. “To the extent material, please disclose the methodology used in calculating these figures and the underlying judgements and assumptions used by management.”
- Seven days later, Twitter responded with a description of the methodology that is broadly consistent with the company’s public statements. As described in the statement, Twitter conducts a human review of thousands of randomly chosen accounts out of the mDAU sample every quarter and flags for spam and platform manipulation where appropriate.
- It’s not clear whether this explanation was good enough for the SEC
Source: theverge.com
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