News of the communication comes as Twitter faces increased attention to its audience measurement. legal battle When Elon Musk and the next Last week’s whistleblower disclosure This called into question the company’s incentives to properly meter spam and fake bot accounts.
on June 15th letter Addressing Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, the agency asked questions about the company’s statement in its 2021 annual report that fake and spam accounts accounted for less than 5% of mDAU. “Please disclose the methodology used to calculate these figures and the underlying judgments and assumptions used by management,” the SEC said in its letter.
Also asked about Twitter Fixing that mDAU figure Last 3 years data for March 2022 Quarterly Report. The SEC has determined how and when the company discovered the error that previously caused the mDAU to be overstated, and that the company “does not have any material weaknesses in your internal controls over financial reporting and your disclosure controls and procedures are currently effective.” I requested information on how I concluded that there was. March 31, 2022.
explained on twitter letter As of June 22, the percentage of fake and spam accounts was calculated “based on an internal review of sample accounts and the application of Twitter’s business judgment,” repeating a statement about the process contained in the company’s quarterly report. . Human reviewers evaluate thousands of randomly selected accounts that Twitter considers to be mDAUs, using both public and private data, such as contact information and account activity, to identify added that it will consider whether it violates one or more of our rules against spam or platform manipulation. These ratings are subject to a multi-stage review process, the company said.
In its letter, Twitter said the mDAU hype was the result of a feature launched in March 2021 that allowed people to link separate accounts and easily switch between them. rice field.
The company said its mDAU exaggeration had no impact on its other key metrics or financial statements. It added that it “had no material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting” because it determined the overstatements were “not material.”
July 27, SEC responded It said on Twitter that it has completed its review of its 2021 annual report and March quarterly report. “Please be reminded that the company and its management are responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of their disclosures,” the agency said.
Musk is currently fighting the company in court to terminate a $44 billion acquisition deal. After he accused Twitter of misrepresenting the account as rampant with spam and fake bots on its platform.mask lawyer Asked Twitter’s process for measuring mDAU. Musk first said on April 25 that he had agreed to buy Twitter, and on May 13 that the Twitter deal was “temporarily put on hold” while he evaluated the bot issue. rice field. On May 17th, he tweeted: Before calling the SEC to evaluate platform numbers. “Hi @SECGov, is anyone home?” Neither Musk nor the acquisition was mentioned in his SEC letter to his Twitter.
Musk and Twitter’s lawsuit is set to go to trial in October.
Last week, Twitter’s former security chief Peiter Zatko accused the company of making dangerous security and privacy breaches, accusing company executives of negligentness and misleading users and regulators. filed an explosive whistleblower disclosure. Among the claims disclosed, Submit to SEC and other US regulatorsthat is Claim Twitter doesn’t have an accurate count of the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform, and little incentive to do a full count.
Twitter criticized Zatko and widely refuted his claims, saying the disclosure portrayed a “false narrative” of the company and was “full of contradictions and inaccuracies.”
Twitter and the SEC declined to comment on the SEC’s response.
Source: www.cnn.com
