Friday open thread: Lulz Elon Musk

Well, I was going to start our weekend self-care today, but this is too rich to pass up:

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk said Friday that his plan to buy Twitter for $44 billion is “temporarily on hold” as he tries to pinpoint the exact number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform, another twist amid signs of internal turmoil over the proposed acquisition.

Musk, who has been vocal about his desire to clean up Twitter’s problem with “spam bots” that mimic real people, appeared to question whether the company was underreporting them.

In a tweet, the Tesla billionaire linked to a Reuters story from May 2 about a quarterly report from Twitter that estimated false or spam accounts made up fewer than 5% of the company’s “monetizable daily active users” in the first quarter.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk said, indicating he’s skeptical that the number of inauthentic accounts is that low.

As many of us have been suspecting, Eelon caught the car, and now doesn't know what to do with it. It's obvious that this is a gambit to get out of the deal—and out of paying the $1 billion termination penalty. And, to be frank, he has every reason to be suspicious of that figure. It's not like Twitter has a robust moderation scheme.

On this news, Twitter stock fell, while Tesla shares rose. And that's at the heart of it. Tesla shares had been taking a beating due to its owner's divided attention, and due to the fact that Tesla was put up as collateral for the loans Musk needed to purchase Twitter. 

At this point, I don't care much about Twitter. With or without Musk, it's toxic. But obviously it's much better that he doesn't acquire it. Although it really is six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Anywho, happy Friday everyone.