Elon Musk says he STILL wants to buy Twitter despite putting $44bn deal ON HOLD

ELON Musk has declared that he still wants to buy Twitter after dramatically hitting pause on the $44bn deal.

The billionaire revealed on Friday that the setback is due to an issue over spam and fake account numbers on the platform.

Musk, 50, wants more information about the real number of fakes on the service before snapping it up.

But he said the hold up is only temporary and that he is “still committed to acquisition”.

Tweeting on the service, he shared: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”

The timing is also bizarre, as the 5 per cent figure was announced weeks ago by Twitter.

The Tesla founder has pledged to stamp out fake accounts and bots once the deal goes through – which could have an impact on his own Twitter following.

It all comes amid an exodus of senior staff at the firm ahead of Musk’s expected arrival.

Consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour was fired during paternity leave.

And head of revenue product Bruce Falck has also been shown the door.

The businessman also wants to overturn former US president Donald Trump’s Twitter ban.

Trump has since launched his own social media platform called Truth Social – and apparently has no interest in returning to Twitter.

“Even though I think a less divisive candidate would be better in 2024, I still think Trump should be restored to Twitter,” Musk said.

“Biden’s mistake is that he thinks he was elected to transform the country, but actually everyone just wanted less drama.”

Twitter’s share price dropped 19 percent following news of Musk’s hold-up.

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