Twitter to grant Elon Musk unprecedented access to ‘firehose’ data to save deal

Twitter will grant Elon Musk unprecedented access to its data to address his concerns over automated accounts, The Washington Post reported.

The tech giant is preparing to grant the Tesla CEO access to “firehose” API, which contains every tweet as it is posted, The Post reported citing a source.

Musk committed to purchasing Twitter in April but has grown vocal about the platform’s possible bot activity in what some experts see as an effort to renegotiate or cancel the deal.

Musk, in a filing with the US Securities Exchange on Monday, accused Twitter of breaching their agreement by not providing sufficient data on automated accounts. He also rejected the company’s offer to provide more detail on its internal studies.

“Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details regarding the company’s own testing methodologies… is tantamount to refusing Mr. Musk’s data requests,” Musk’s representatives said in the filing. “At this point, Mr. Musk believes Twitter is transparently refusing to comply with its obligations under the merger agreement.”

Twitter’s firehose API, as a whole, shows what a user would see if they followed every Twitter account — although the volume would be impossible to obtain or analyse without automation. It is one of the company’s most closely held resources, especially due to its value for ad-targeting and surveillance.

But while the firehose data could be of immense valuable as raw material for a study on automation, the scale makes it unwieldy. Providing the data will be politically useful as Twitter attempts to fend off Musk’s concerns.

Twitter is still confident that the proposed deal would proceed. During an internal meeting, a senior Twitter executive assured employees that the deal was going ahead at a normal pace and set for a shareholder vote in July or August, Bloomberg reported. Twitter’s stock has continued to trade below the $54.20 price Musk set, reflecting scepticism about the deal.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz