Your trusted source

Elon Musk has said his $44bn (£35bn) deal to buy Twitter is temporarily on hold after he queried the number of fake or spam accounts on the social media platform, BBC News reports.

He said he was waiting for information "supporting [the] calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users".

Following the announcement, Twitter shares fell 25% in pre-market trading.

Mr Musk has been vocal on cleaning up spam accounts.

Twitter reported nearly two weeks ago that fake accounts accounted for less than 5% of its daily active users during the first three months of this year.

The billionaire, who is the richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, is now examining that figure.

Under the terms of the deal, if either Twitter or Mr Musk walk away they must pay the other side a termination fee of $1bn.

Twitter has long had an issue with automated, fake accounts being used to relentlessly post content.

Mr Musk has called for "defeating the spam bots" on Twitter as well as several other changes including bringing back some banned accounts, including that of former US President Donald Trump.