Disney reportedly weighed the option of buying Twitter in 2016, former Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed Wednesday while speaking at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Iger claimed that Disney, with the help of Twitter, discovered that a ‘substantial portion’ of Twitter’s user base consisted of fake accounts. Walt Disney and Twitter were willing to negotiate when Iger decided to walk away from the deal. However, Iger did not mention a specific number when talking about the number of fake accounts.
According to Reuters ReportIger – the former CEO of Disney – revealed that the company was in talks with Twitter to buy the social media platform in 2016. Without citing a specific number, he indicated that a “significant portion” of Twitter users “wasn’t real.”
Twitter maintains its claim that less than 5 percent of “earnable” Twitter users are bots or spam accounts. The social media company is currently locked in a legal battle with Elon Musk who pulled out of the $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3.5 lakh crore) takeover deal.
Musk and Twitter are set to go on a five-day trial, which will take place in October.
Notably, Iger noted in his memoir “The Ride of a Lifetime” that he decided not to pursue a Twitter takeover deal in 2016 due to concerns about the “purification” of discourse on the social media platform.
