Texas AG Paxton launches investigation into Twitter for potentially misreporting bot numbers

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation against Twitter for possibly violating the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act by falsely reporting information about the fake bot accounts that populate the site.

According to a release Monday from the Paxton's office, bot accounts "inflate followers and reach, and often push deceptive and annoying activity," in addition to potentially inflating "the value of the company and the costs of doing business with it, thus directly harming Texas consumers and businesses."

In the last weeks, Twitter has come under increased scrutiny for claiming in its financial regulatory filings that bots comprise fewer than 5% of all users, amid reports the figure could be as high as 20%.