Twitter

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice say Twitter violated an agreement it had with regulators, court documents showed.

Twitter had vowed to not give personal information like phone numbers and email addresses to advertisers.

Federal investigators say the social media company broke those rules.

Twitter was fined £400,000 in December 2020 for breaking Europe's GDPR data privacy rules.

The FTC is an independent agency of the US government whose mission is the enforcement of anti-trust law and the promotion of consumer protection.

Mr Musk tweeted that the deal "cannot move forward" unless Twitter backs up its claims that less than 5% of daily users are fake or spam accounts.

Twitter has defended its figures, adding that Mr Musk waived rights to "due diligence" to clinch the deal.

The spat has raised doubts about the takeover.

Analysts have speculated that Mr Musk may be looking for ways to renegotiate the price of the deal or walk away.

Advertising revenue has also been rising, but by less than was forecast.

Some observers have questioned Mr Musk's commercial judgement in buying Twitter, a platform that despite its high profile has not consistently made high returns.

In the latest quarter it made a profit of $513m (£412m) on revenues of $1.2bn.

Daily active users of the platform rose to 229 million, up from 199 million a year earlier, the company said, publishing its latest financial results.

Musk, who made the shock bid less than two weeks ago, has claimed he is the right person to "unlock" the social media firm's "extraordinary potential".

He has suggested a series of changes from relaxing its content restrictions to eradicating fake accounts.

The firm initially rebuffed Musk's bid, but it will now ask shareholders to vote to approve the deal.

It has adopted what is known as a "limited-duration shareholder rights plan", also known as a "poison pill".

The move will prevent anyone from having more than a 15% stake in the company.

It does this by allowing others to buy additional shares at a discount.

The Twitter board detailed its defence plan to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and put out a statement saying it was needed because of Mr Musk's "unsolicited, non-binding proposal to acquire Twitter".

In a surprise announcement, Musk said he would pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, valuing it at about $41b.

It recently emerged that Musk was Twitter's biggest shareholder after he built up a large stake in the firm.

He said that if his offer was not accepted: "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder".

A filing with the US financial regulator appeared to show text and/or voice messages from Musk to Twitter's board, showing that he had raised the idea at the weekend that the business should go private.

The ultimate aim of Musk's 73.5 million share purchase worth $2.9 billion, based on the closing price Friday, is not clear. Yet in recent weeks Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers and posts there often, has questioned free speech on Twitter and whether the platform is undermining democracy.

The regulatory filing Monday describes Musk as a long-term investor looking to minimize his buying and selling of the shares.

In a statement, the company said "We're aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia and are working to keep our services safe and accessible".

On Friday Russia restricted Facebook after a clash over "censorship".

Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor accused Facebook of violating "the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens".

Facebook said it had refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned news organisations.

This will come as a big surprise to many Nigerians, who had assumed that the Nigerian government had backed down following months of negotiations, says the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo in Abuja.

Nigeria suspended the social media firm last June after it deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari.

It accused Twitter of siding with secessionists.

Before ending the ban, the Nigerian government insisted that Twitter:

Register in Nigeria

Appoint a designated country representative

Comply with tax obligations in Nigeria

The new rule is an extension of policies to prohibit "doxxing" - the publishing of private information such as home addresses, without consent.

Critics say the rule is too broad and could be "used to deliberately stifle free expression on the platform".

But Twitter said it would consider the context in which images were posted.