‘Substantial portion’ of Twitter users were fake in 2016: Disney

In 2016, when Disney was considering buying the social network, a “significant fraction” of Twitter’s members were found to be “not real,” according to former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who spoke on Wednesday.

Iger claimed that when he became shaky, the boards of Twitter Inc. and Walt Disney Co. were ready to start talks. He said that Twitter had assisted Disney in discovering that “a significant number, not a majority,” of users were fraudulent.

Iger admitted that as a result, “I recall minimising the value,” in remarks made at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

Iger did not elaborate on his use of the word “significant.” Less than 5% of Twitter’s “monetizable” daily users are bots or spam accounts, according to reliable reporting.

Iger’s remarks come as Twitter and billionaire businessman Elon Musk are engaged in a legal dispute over Musk’s agreement to pay $44 billion for the social media platform. Musk, who is attempting to back out of the agreement, asserted that Twitter had exaggerated the prevalence of spam or automated accounts on the social media platform.

In his statements on Wednesday, Iger avoided specifically mentioning Musk, although he did start by saying, “Interestingly, because I follow the news these days, we did look very thoroughly at all of the Twitter users,” before adding, “A considerable fraction” of Twitter users “were not real.”

Iger admitted in his autobiography, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” that he had second thoughts about a partnership with Twitter due to the “nastiness” of the online dialogue, which he believed would become a source of distraction.

The trial is scheduled to start on October 17 and involves Twitter suing Musk to enforce the agreement.