Twitter says it suspends 1m spam users a day as Elon Musk row deepens

Twitter has revealed that it is suspending more than 1m spam accounts a day, as Elon Musk threatens to walk away from buying the business in a dispute over fake users.

The new figure, confirmed by the social media platform on Thursday, represents a doubling of its previous update. Its chief executive, Parag Agrawal, said in May that spam account suspensions were running at 500,000 a day.

Twitter has stated consistently in its quarterly results since 2014 that it estimates its spam account problem to represent less than 5% of its daily active users. The 1m figure will include accounts that are weeded out as they attempt to join the platform and therefore are never counted as daily users.

Twitter has just under 230 million daily active users. Musk has expressed concerns that the 5% figure is substantially higher, a stance that appears to be a bridgehead for either terminating or renegotiating a deal that is bound by a tight legal agreement. Twitter has given Musk access to a stream of data comprising more than 500m tweets posted every day in an effort to answer his concerns.

Spam accounts are automated, meaning they are not operated by a human hand, and are designed to manipulate users or disrupt their interactions on the platform. The vast majority that Twitter catches relate to cryptocurrency or pornography, executives said.