Elon Musk, who is trying to get out of his deal to buy Twitter, is seeking documents from ad tech firms as part of his effort to get more information on bot and spam accounts on Twitter, according to filings in a Delaware court on Thursday.
Twitter has sued Tesla’s chief executive, who has accused Twitter of withholding information about how it calculates the percentage of robots in service, in an attempt to back out of the $44 billion deal. The trial is set for October 17.
Musk’s lawyers have subpoenaed both Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify for any documents or communications about their involvement in reviewing accounts or participating in any audit process of Twitter’s user base.
IAS and DoubleVerify, which are both based in New York, use technology to independently verify that digital ads are being viewed by real people. Advertisers use the services to ensure that the ads they pay for are seen by potential customers and not by automated bots.
Twitter, IAS and DoubleVerify did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a counterclaim earlier this month, Musk claimed that Twitter’s monetized daily active users are 65 million lower than the company has advertised. Twitter has said it stands by its findings.
The metric measures users who access Twitter through the website or apps that are able to serve ads or paid-for products like subscriptions, according to Twitter filings.
