How much information does Musk get with full Twitter firehose database access?
In terms of the information Mr. Musk would have access to, that includes effectively everything. The database reportedly acts as a real-time record of the popular social media platform’s 500 million daily tweets, of course. But it also opens up device and account data for users across the platform. Elon Musk has repeatedly expressed concerns about the number of bots and fake accounts on Twitter. The billionaire is presently expected to pay $44 billion for the buyout deal. Approximately $33 billion of that stems from Mr. Musk’s own wealth. If the deal goes through, Mr. Musk hopes to monetize aspects of the platform in order to turn a profit. But that could fail or succeed depending on how accurate Twitter’s claims are with regard to fake accounts. Twitter, for its part, has said that around 5-percent of its daily active users are bots or fake accounts. In the months preceding the decision, Mr. Musk has accused Twitter of being misleading about the figures and requested access to the database for his own analysis. Access to the information will allow Elon Musk to scrutinize the data for himself before proceeding with the purchase.
Will Elon Musk still buy the platform?
If Twitter’s numbers regarding bots and fake accounts on the app and service prove to be accurate, Mr. Musk will effectively be forced to buy the platform. For Twitter’s part, the company has said that it plans to continue to “cooperatively share” data as needed with the billionaire. And it has also stated its intention to “close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”
