Elon Musk Wants 'Public Debate' With Twitter CEO, Launches Bot Percentage Poll

Elon Musk has challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a "public debate" to discuss the percentage of bots on the social media platform. Twitter sued the billionaire last month, accusing him of "having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play" while he was pursuing a buyout deal with the social network.

"I hereby challenge @paraga to a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage. Let him prove to the public that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users!" Musk said on Twitter on Sunday while responding to a tweet by cybersecurity researcher Andrea Stroppa.

Stroppa first stated that Twitter "provided a vague response" when Musk requested detailed information about the number of fake or spam accounts on the social media network. Stroppa went on to explain that Twitter allegedly "refused" to tell Musk "who reviews for spam, how those reviewers are trained, the criteria it uses, the process it follows, the standards it applies, or how Twitter verifies the accuracy of the reviewers' results."

Musk then praised Stroppa's "summary of the problem" and proceeded to challenge Agrawal to a public discussion on the matter. Shortly after responding to Stroppa, Musk opened a Twitter poll to gather user opinions about the issue. About 35.1% of Twitter users responded "Yes" to the statement that "Less than 5% of Twitter daily users are fake/spam," while 64.9% responded "Lmaooo no."

After Musk said he was dropping a deal with Twitter to purchase the social network, Twitter filed a lawsuit, stating that the SpaceX CEO was still bound by the merger contract to close the buyout at $54.20 per share as initially proposed.

In the complaint, Twitter alleged that "Musk apparently believes that he – unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, or walk away," CNBC reported.

Musk has since countersued Twitter with a 164-page filing that escalated his legal battle against the company takeover. Musk claims that Twitter did not disclose the correct number of fake accounts on the social network. The two sides are set for a five-day trial starting Oct. 17 to determine if the SpaceX CEO can actually walk out of the $44 billion deal.

Experts have had divisive comments about the legal battle. Some legal experts have suggested that Twitter has "a strong legal case" against the billionaire, Reuters reported. However, the company can still choose to settle instead of dragging the legal battle on for years.

Other analysts have also suggested that the two sides may agree to a lower price than the initial buyout price of $54.20 per share. Some have indicated that the best option at this point is for the deal to end and for Musk to pay the contract termination fee of $1 billion, but many analysts believe Twitter will not let it happen.