Twitter confirms over 1m spam users are suspended each day as Elon Musk takeover looms

Twitter has revealed that it is suspending over 1m spam accounts per day, as Elon Musk threatens to walk away from buying the business in a dispute over fake users.

The number, confirmed in a tweet from Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agwaral, is twice the figure released just two months ago. In May, Twitter’s CEO said that spam account suspensions were running at 500,000 a day.

Elon Musk has agreed to buy twitter for $44bn, but his lawyers have written to the company accusing it of refusing to provide sufficient information about the number of spam users on the service. It has since started to provide him with public tweet data.

Twitter has previously stated that it estimates spam accounts to represent less than 5 per cent of its daily active users. The 1m figure includes accounts that are removed as they attempt to join the platform and therefore are never counted as daily users.

Spam accounts are automated and are designed to manipulate users or disrupt their interactions on the platform. The majority that Twitter catches relate to cryptocurrency or pornography, executives said.

Twitter has 230m daily active users. Musk has expressed concerns that the 5 per cent figure is higher, a stance that appears to be a bridgehead for either terminating or renegotiating a deal. Twitter has provided Musk access to a stream of data comprising more than 500m tweets posted every day in an effort to answer his concerns.