Disney’s Bob Iger, Who Also Backed Out of Buying Twitter, Says Lots of Users Were Bots

Iger’s comments are no doubt welcome news to Musk and his team, who are claiming that Twitter lied about how many bots are on its platform in an attempt to wiggle out of the deal. While Twitter states that less than 5% of its monthly active users are fake or spam accounts, Musk claims that the number is significantly higher. The two parties are fighting over the future of the acquisition deal in Delaware’s Chancery Court and are scheduled to go to trial in October.

While both Iger and Musk wanted to buy Twitter and then backed out, Iger didn’t sign a binding contract and then happily announce to the world that he was buying Twitter, unlike Musk. Disney never formalized or signed an acquisition deal.

The new information from Iger on the social media platform’s bots comes a little more than a week after Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko, who is the company’s former head of security, alleged in a complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the social media company showed no interest in finding out how many bots are on the platform. In addition, Zatko claimed that Twitter couldn’t figure out how many bots were on the site, even if it wanted to, because it doesn’t have the resources to do so.

On Wednesday, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick allowed Musk and his team to add Zatko’s whistleblower complaint into the case. The former Twitter employee has been subpoenaed by Musk’s legal team and has agreed to testify.