On Wednesday, 24th August, 2022, the news spread all over that the US SEC opened an investigation against Twitter. A new regulatory file consisted of the details about the investigation of the Security and Exchange Commission on methodology of identifying spam and fake accounts on the social media platform.
The Division of Corporation Finance within the SEC is leading the investigation started in June itself. On 15th June, 2022, the agency wrote a letter to Twitter disclosing them of being aware of the stats the company presented. The letter noted a report from Twitter showcasing that during the fiscal year 2021, the spam accounts over the platform is below 5% of their mDAU or active users.
In addition to admitting the showcased facts, the agency asked for details on the company’s methodology. They show their curiosity in knowing how the social media platform figures out the number of fake accounts. The regulator also seeks the management’s assumptions and judgments behind making the decision.
SEC Asked for the Procedure
Further in the letter, the agency also asked for details on the overstatement error on ‘monetizable daily active users’ or mDAU of Twitter between 2019 to 2021. They asked when the error was detected and who did so. Additionally they also said to disclose how the company considered the financial reporting’s internal control was not the reason behind the fault.
On 22nd August, 2022, Twitter’s response was delivered via its lawyers from the law firm, Wilson Sonsisn Goodrich & Rosati. They reiterated the earlier reported stats in their filing that the number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform is less than 5%.
Spam Accounts on Twitter: a Deal-breaker Issue
The social media giants asked often of spam or fake accounts on its platform. It’s been a long running debate. Earlier the deal between Elon Musk and Twitter also broke because of the same issue.
As per the reports, Tesla CEO asked for the reports on spam accounts on Twitter. Musk argued the social media platform was unable to provide and this resulted in canceling of the 44 billion USD deal.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/08/25/the-sec-behind-investigating-fake-accounts-on-twitter/