Elon Musk Targets Ad Tech Companies In Twitter Suit Over Takeover Deal

The two New York-based companies -- IAS and DoubleVerify -- use technology to independently verify that digital ads are viewed by real people, the report mentioned

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and SpaceX Founder. ( Image Source :Getty )

Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk, who has terminated a deal to acquire Twitter Inc, is seeking documents from advertising technology firms as part of his quest to gain more information on bot and spam accounts on Twitter, according to filings in a Delaware court, as reported by Reuters.

According to the report, Twitter has sued the billionaire entrepreneur, who has accused the social media platform of hiding information about how the firm calculates the percentage of bots on the service, for trying to walk away from the $44-billion agreement.

A trial on this is scheduled on October 17.

Lawyers representing Elon Musk have subpoenaed both Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify for any documents or communications on their involvement in reviewing accounts or participation in any audit of Twitter's user base.

According to the report, the two New York-based companies -- IAS and DoubleVerify -- use technology to independently verify that digital ads are viewed by real people. Advertisers use the services to ensure the ads they pay for are seen by potential customers and not automated bots.

Twitter, IAS, and DoubleVerify did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

In response to a tweet by a user who questioned how Twitter audits its service and also linked to a Reuters story on Musk targeting the ad firms, Musk tweeted: “Those are the questions that Twitter is doing everything possible to avoid answering …”

In a countersuit earlier this month, Musk claimed that Twitter's monetisable daily active users are 6.5 crore lower than what the company has touted. Twitter has said it stands by its disclosures.

The metric measures users who log onto Twitter through the website or apps that are able to serve ads or used paid products like subscriptions, according to Twitter filings.