Twitter yesterday slammed Elon Musk’s response to the corporate’s lawsuit in a 127-page submitting within the Delaware Courtroom of Chancery that claims Musk’s claims are “contradicted by the proof and customary sense.” Twitter’s courtroom submitting additionally stated Musk’s spam evaluation relied on a device that after referred to as his personal Twitter account a possible bot.

“In keeping with Musk, he—the billionaire founding father of a number of firms, suggested by Wall Avenue bankers and attorneys—was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger settlement,” Twitter wrote. “This story is as implausible and opposite to truth because it sounds. And it’s simply that—a narrative, imagined in an effort to flee a merger settlement that Musk now not discovered engaging as soon as the inventory market—and together with it, his huge private wealth—declined in worth.”

Twitter’s submitting was in response to Musk’s protection and counterclaims, which had been submitted final week however not made public instantly as a result of Twitter was given time to request redactions. Twitter apparently selected to not make any redactions.

“Musk’s Counterclaims, primarily based as they’re on distortion, misrepresentation, and outright deception, change nothing. Musk signed and is obligated to consummate the merger settlement,” Twitter wrote.

Twitter: Musk used device that labeled his account a bot

Musk has defended his try to interrupt the merger settlement by questioning Twitter’s public disclosure that lower than 5 % of its monetizable every day lively customers (mDAU) are spam or faux. Twitter’s courtroom submitting stated Musk’s personal evaluation used a publicly out there web site to search out “that false or spam accounts represent at the least 10 % of Twitter’s monetizable every day lively customers,” however “Musk just isn’t measuring the identical factor as Twitter and even utilizing the identical information as Twitter.”

“Musk can produce a better estimate solely by operating a knowledge set neither restricted to nor inclusive of mDAU by means of a generic internet device that designated his personal Twitter account a possible ‘bot.’ The result’s a distortion that Musk is hoping will nonetheless make waves,” Twitter stated.

Particularly, Musk used “an Web utility referred to as the ‘Botometer’—which applies completely different requirements than Twitter does and which earlier this 12 months designated Musk himself as extremely more likely to be a bot,” Twitter stated.

The Botometer web site is a undertaking of the Observatory on Social Media and the Community Science Institute at Indiana College. Citing a Could 2022 Protocol article, Twitter’s courtroom submitting stated that “the Botometer indicated that Elon Musk’s personal Twitter account was seemingly a bot, scoring it 4/5.”

Musk’s Botometer rating now extra “human-like”

This morning, Botometer gave Musk’s account a score of 1.2 out of 5, indicating that Musk is extra “human-like” than bot-like as of at this time. Protocol’s article in Could famous that Musk’s account was getting wildly completely different Botometer scores from someday to the following, saying the device “highlights simply how exhausting it’s to determine bots, particularly utilizing solely public information.”

As Twitter’s courtroom submitting famous, “the Botometer’s personal FAQ web site cautions that ‘Bot detection is a tough process’ and that if it ‘had been straightforward to do with software program, there would not be any bots—Twitter would have already caught and banned them!'”

Twitter’s submitting described different issues with Musk’s reliance on the Botometer as follows:

The Botometer thus doesn’t even purport to use Twitter’s definition of a false or spam account. In truth, some bots (like those who report earthquakes as they occur or updates on the climate) are sometimes useful and permissible beneath Twitter’s platform manipulation and spam coverage, to which Twitter respectfully refers the Courtroom. Furthermore, Defendants haven’t indicated what rating they’re making use of to conclude an account constitutes spam; thus, their allegation is unverifiable.

Musk already misplaced one essential ruling when Courtroom of Chancery Decide Kathaleen McCormick expedited the trial, rejecting Musk’s request to delay it till February 2023. The five-day trial is now scheduled to start on October 17.