CHIMNIII

Better burns Twitter's attorneys were brought in to refute Elon Musk's assertions.

Twitter acknowledges that Musk uses Twitter and that he started a number of businesses.

Friday, August 5, 2022 | Chimniii Desk
Although Elon Musk's counterclaims against Twitter are still under seal, I have a general idea of what they contain thanks to Twitter's reaction today. It's hot! Twitter went ahead and posted a blow-by-blow reaction before waiting for Musk to air his grievances, the better to dunk on Elon along the way.

I adore this.

The Counter claims are a story that was created for litigation and is debunked by the facts and logic.

Legal documents frequently contain obscure, passive-aggressive jabs at the opposing side. In contrast, Twitter's legal counsel responded forcefully to Musk's counterclaims. Maybe they do that because they are aware of how many people will read these materials, or maybe it's just that they are rude to people.

For the benefit of anyone who might be interested, we have chosen our top sections from the documentation and are exhibiting them here.

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Legal documents frequently contain obscure, passive-aggressive jabs at the opposing side. In contrast, Twitter's legal counsel responded forcefully to Musk's counterclaims. Maybe they do that because they are aware of how many people will read these materials, or maybe it's just that they are rude to people.

For the benefit of anyone who might be interested, we have chosen our top sections from the documentation and are exhibiting them here.

TWITTER WANT TO KNOW WHAT ELON MUSK IS EVEN TALKING ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO BOTS.

You may recall that Musk said Twitter's "false and misleading remarks" were the reason he left the platform. These claims, which relate to spam and bot accounts, were made by Musk's attorneys during the hearing that decided on an October trial date.

Twitter provides a brief overview of its procedures, supporting documentation, and disclosure declarations in earlier SEC filings to the court. According to Twitter, "Musk does not identify any inaccurate or deceptive statement of fact in this declaration." Where do his strange numbers come from, then? They are in the dark because:

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Musk is not using the same metrics or even the same data as Twitter to measure the same thing.

Twitter continues by claiming Musk is purposefully manipulating these figures to "create waves." "Who's the bot now, hot stuff?" it then asks.

Musk's "preliminary expert estimations" are merely the results of feeding inaccurate data into a general online tool. Musk uses an online tool called the "Botometer," which uses different standards than Twitter and identified Musk earlier this year as extremely likely to be a bot, to support his assertion that his conclusion is unreliable.

TWITTER IS READY TO ACCEPT SOME OF MUSK'S COUNTERSUIT IS TRUE.

I think this is the part of the document that is the funniest. Twitter will acknowledge the following as true:

  • Twitter acknowledges that Musk uses the service and has created a number of businesses.
  • Twitter acknowledges the complexity of its industry.
  • Twitter acknowledges that Musk uses the service and that he has more than 100 million followers.
  • Twitter acknowledges that it monitors and gets rid of spam on its network.

Twitter, however, "lacks knowledge or facts necessary to establish a belief" as to whether Musk supports free speech and open discussion, if he sees Twitter as a town hall, or whether investing in Twitter was a logical choice for him. Twitter then acknowledges that "Musk Tweets regularly." Once in those terms and once in the following manner:

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Twitter acknowledges that Musk is a regular user and that many people think that free speech is crucial to a healthy democracy.

Does Twitter think that free speech is crucial to a healthy democracy? They can't decide whether Musk believes that "eliminating free speech is a treatment worse than the problem" or not.


Twitter acknowledges that before the Merger Agreement was finalised and before the parties had a non-disclosure agreement in place, it did not give the Musk Parties the information in the April 28, 2022 press release.

We apologise, but this might be the least amusing of the "Twitter admits": indeed, we withheld the press release until he signed the NDA. This is in reaction to Musk's complaint that he wasn't informed when Twitter disclosed that it had been wrongly counting its daily active users for several years. However, I do think it makes sense to hold off on sharing information with persons who have a strong Twitter following and weak impulse control until they have signed NDAs.

It may also be this one. According to Musk's attorneys, he didn't perform due diligence because he believed it to be "expensive and ineffective."

According to Twitter, the Musk Parties allegedly decided not to conduct any due diligence before signing the Merger Agreement.

Man, you know how it can really hurt when your adversary agrees with you?

Twitter acknowledges that Defendants attempted to terminate the Merger Agreement on July 8, 2022, that Twitter thereafter commenced legal action to enforce the Merger Agreement, and that Defendants have brought counterclaims.

Oh nice, Twitter has acknowledged this situation.

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Twitter claims that Musk is merely making things up and has arbitrarily changed his mind.

Okay, so you may recall the will-he-won't-he dance surrounding Musk's appointment to the board. Twitter has it!

After negotiating an offer to join the board, accepting it in writing, and Tweeting that he was "looking forward" to taking the post, Musk unexpectedly changed his mind, informed Mr. Agrawal of the change, and also announced his intention to make an offer to purchase Twitter.

Twitter has become snarky about Musk's withdrawal from the deal because he didn't point out any inaccurate or misleading statements the company made:

Musk only recently came up with this new excuse to get out of the merger agreement; neither in his letter to Twitter dated July 8 outlining the reasons for his alleged termination of the merger agreement nor in any other interactions with the company since signing the merger agreement, are these alleged inaccuracies mentioned. In any case, Twitter never released the information he now claims to be untrue.
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