SEC questions Twitter on how it counts fake accounts

The Twitter icon is displayed on a mobile phone in Philadelphia on April 26, 2017. U.S. securities regulators are questioning Twitter about how it calculates the number of fake accounts on its platform. The Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2022 asked the company about the methodology for calculating the false or spam accounts “and the underlying judgments and assumptions used by management.” (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

U.S. securities regulators are questioning Twitter about how it counts fake accounts on its platform.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in June asked the company about its methodology for calculating the false or spam accounts and “the underlying judgments and assumptions used by management.”

The agency’s Division of Corporation Finance made the request in a June 15 letter, shortly before Tesla CEO Elon Musk raised the issue as grounds to back out of a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion.