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Is Elon Musk's Twitter takeover one big TROLL? Internet erupts after tycoon puts deal ON HOLD

Many wondered if the 'bot accounts' issue could stall the Twitter deal entirely and whether Musk would faced any legal repercussions

Elon Musk was branded a "troll" after he announced that his hotly-anticipated Twitter deal was being put on hold until the actual number of spam accounts on the platform was determined. The move sent the social media giant's shares into freefall.

The Tesla CEO tweeted, "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users." The shocking revelation sent the company's stock to fall by a staggering 20 percent in premarket trading, while Tesla jumped 5 percent. The billionaire's tweet also included a link to a May 2 Reuters article quoting Twitter's filing on Monday, May 9. “Twitter Inc estimated in a filing on Monday that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter,” the article stated.

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Many wondered if the 'bot accounts' issue could stall the Twitter deal and whether Musk would faced any legal repercussions. It's also possible that acquiring the platform was merely a distraction for maverick billionaire, the New York Post reported. The SpaceX founder later tweeted that he was "still committed" to the acquisition, but some social media users have their doubts.

"It looks like I was right all along. You never actually intended to buy #Twitter. You were bluffing the entire time. How many Twitter shares did you sell before tweeting this announcement?" economist Peter Schiff replied to Musk's tweet.

Others felt Musk had been "trolling" social media users all along. "I think Elon Musk has been trolling us all along about buying Twitter..." one person tweeted. "If Elon Musk doesn't buy Twitter and this ends up being the reason, then this further proves my point of Elon being a master troll seeking attention," another wrote. "Musk isn't going to buy Twitter. He's just trolling because that's what he does. Seriously 54.20 see he got that 420 in there," someone else added. "Elon Musk is what you’d get if you gave a 4Chan troll a billion dollars," another commented.

On the other hand, some lauded the move as a brilliant way to "reprice" the deal. "Elon Musk has reported that the Twitter deal is on hold pending confirmation that less than 5% of users are bots. This may be the leverage Musk needs to reprice the deal and have it reflect the recent sell-off in asset prices," investor Anthony Pompliano tweeted.

"Elon has now tanked Twitter's share price, with a pretty questionable tweet on Friday the 13th. By doing so, he opens the door to re-cutting the deal at a much lower price or walking away. Has anyone on Wall Street ever toyed with stocks like Elon?" Financial Times editor Arash Massoudi offered.

"I cannot work out if @elonmusk is the world's best troll or not. What a great way to prove your point that Twitter is full of spam/fake accounts, other than trying to buy it and then getting the company to open up its user secrets," one Twitter user wrote. "$TWTR @elonmusk New buyout price $42.0 Funding secured! Brilliant Billionaire!" another gushed.

It's worth noting that Twitter has faced numerous hurdles since its board announced last month it had accepted Musk's $44 billion buyout offer. The tycoon has revealed his intentions of buying out shareholders and taking the company private. Meanwhile, he has also promised to rework the platform's content moderation policies that have led to controversial bans on various figures, many of them on the political right. That said, according to a regulatory filing submitted this week, Twitter is wary that employees could resign en masse ahead of Musk's planned takeover.