51�Թ�

Musk’s primary angle for getting out of the deal seems to be to prove that Twitter has a spambot problem it didn’t represent accurately, and he needs the information to prove it.

It could refer to people having to pass some kind of captcha-style “am I a human” test to post — although, as with spambot bans, if there were an easy way to do this without affecting good-faith users, Twitter would probably have done it already.

In recent weeks, he has proposed relaxing Twitter content restrictions — such as the rules that suspended former President Donald Trump’s account — while ridding the platform of fake “spambot” accounts and shifting away from advertising as its primary revenue model.

Instead of ill-gotten quick money from a real estate scam or a spambot “Nigerian” who promises to share money from a former dictator’s personal bank account, Trump’s marks are motivated by racism, nativism, sexism, authoritarianism, ignorance and a fear of their own obsolescence in a changing world.

He has the voice down pat: the cheerful, soulless “Hello!” of a spambot inviting you into an abyssal call center from which you may never return.