Elon Musk.Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty
Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter deal may take a little longer to finalize than he originally anticipated.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO retweeteda Reuters articleFriday that reported the social media platform’s Monday filing had found that “false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter.”
Inhis retweet, Musk, 50, said his purchase is now “temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
“Still committed to acquisition,” he wrote ina follow-up post.
Twitter did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
In his own statement, Musk called Twitter “the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” adding that he planned to enhance the platform with his takeover.
RELATED VIDEO: Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey on Elon Musk’s New Ownership: “This Is the Right Path”
Earlier this week, Musk said that if his deal to acquire Twitter goes through as planned, he will reverse the permanent ban against former PresidentDonald Trumpthat was put in place following theriots at the U.S. Capitol.
Speaking at FT Live’s Future of the Car conference Tuesday, Musk said theban on Trump’s verified account was a “mistake"and that he would “reverse” it if he owned the social-media platform.
“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts … I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said, according to aCNBC report. “I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Musk was quick to note, however, that he hasn’t yet acquired Twitter. “I would reverse the permanent ban,” he added. “I don’t own Twitter yet. So this is not like a thing that will definitely happen, because what if I don’t own Twitter?”
source: people.com
