Theres a wonky number at the core of Elon Musks case against Twitter

Listening to the lawyers representing Elon Musk and Twitter argue over which documents need to be provided as part of legal discovery today, I began to wonder if it is possible to measure anything at all.

The arguments centered on a wonky count of user numbers: mDAUs, or “monetizable daily active users.” It’s a nonstandard measure — most social media companies use daily or monthly active users — that focuses on which users can see ads. But Twitter is a nonstandard social media company!

Twitter is suing Musk for abandoning a deal to buy the company for $44 billion. Part of Musk’s argument is that he was misled about the amount of spam and bots on the platform and that, therefore, the deal can’t...

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