Former Disney Chief Said, The Company Estimated A 'Substantial Portion' Of Twitter Accounts Were 'Not Real' In 2016

In 2016, when the entertainment giant was considering purchasing the social media platform the business estimated that a "substantial portion" of Twitter users were "not real," according to former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who revealed the assessment on Wednesday.

Iger reportedly said, "I don't remember the number but we discounted the value heavily,"  during Vox Media's Code conference. Iger said that it was "not a majority" of platform users but did not specify what he meant by "substantial." Less than 5% of the accounts on Twitter, according to the company's long-standing claims, are bots.

Disney considered acquiring Twitter in 2016, but decided against it, Bloomberg reported at the time, in part because of worries about bullying and other abusive behaviour on the platform. At that time, Twitter's market worth was $20 billion.

Iger said on Wednesday that Twitter was being considered by Disney as a medium for global distribution, but he later changed his mind. According to Vox, among his worries were the "potential to do as much harm as good" and the existence of "hate speech" on the platform.

"We're in the business of manufacturing fun at Disney — of doing nothing but good, even though there are others today that criticise Disney for the opposite, which is wrong,"  Iger added, "This was just something that we were not ready to take on, and I was not ready to take on as the CEO of a company, and I thought it would have been irresponsible."

Iger's remarks come as a trial between Twitter and Elon Musk is scheduled to begin in October. Due to Musk's $44 billion buyout bid for the social media platform that was made public in April, Twitter and Musk are embroiled in a legal dispute.