Twitter Inc. admitted overstating its audience figures by about 2 million users for about three years as it reported its Q1 results.
“In March of 2019, we launched a feature that allowed people to link multiple separate accounts together in order to conveniently switch between accounts,” Twitter disclosed. “An error was made at that time, such that actions taken via the primary account resulted in all linked accounts being counted as mDAU.”
The difference between the figures Twitter reported over the past year, and the actual count ranged from 1.4 million—1.9 million, just below 1 percent of the total, the Financial Times reports.
It came just days after Twitter agreed to a leveraged buyout by Elon Musk.
It marks Twitter’s second miscalculation after discovering in 2017 that a similar error had gone overlooked for three years.
Musk looked to reshape Twitter’s business model, which relies on advertising for more than 90 percent of its revenues.
Musk’s bankers skipped much of the due diligence typically required in such a deal, FT notes.
Fake or spam accounts represented “fewer than 5 percent” of its mDAU during the quarter, Twitter said, after an internal review.
Musk looked to crack down on “bots” or fake accounts when he took over.
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