Micah Jonah
March 17, 2026
Closing arguments are set to begin in a civil trial in the United States involving Elon Musk and shareholders of Twitter, now known as X. The lawsuit claims Musk engaged in deceptive practices that misled investors as he attempted to withdraw from his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform in 2022.
The class-action lawsuit was filed just before Musk completed the acquisition. Musk finalized the deal six months after agreeing to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, a portion of his estimated fortune of $839 billion.
A key point in the trial has been the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. Musk has repeatedly claimed that Twitter understated the number of fake accounts, asserting it was significantly higher than the 5% disclosed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Musk cited this discrepancy as a primary reason for attempting to back out of the acquisition.
Twitter’s former Chief Financial Officer, Ned Segal, testified that the bot count was closer to 1% and denied that the company intentionally filed false SEC statements. Segal did note that in 2017, Twitter had to restate its monthly active user numbers after discovering a miscalculation that included third-party app users who should not have been counted.
During pre-trial proceedings, Musk reversed his attempts to withdraw and agreed to pay the original purchase price, resolving a parallel case filed in Delaware seeking to enforce the contract.
On Monday, the court focused on final instructions to the jury. Judge Charles R. Breyer acknowledged that Musk is a polarizing figure but emphasized that personal opinions about him should not affect the jury’s impartiality.
The trial is expected to conclude with the jury determining whether Musk engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior that harmed shareholders during the acquisition of Twitter/X.
