State officers throughout the nation have taken on Big Tech firms within the courts and state legislatures, and federal regulators have nipped at Twitter over alleged violations of customers’ knowledge privateness.

Now, one state lawyer normal with an outsize character and edge-skating stance almost within the league of Elon Musk is striding into the maelstrom of Musk’s $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,41,800 crore) now-tenuous bid for Twitter. He is launching an investigation of Twitter for “potential false reporting” of bots on its platform to bolster complaints Musk himself made this week in threatening to stroll away from the deal.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton introduced his investigation of Twitter on Monday simply hours after Musk, the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO, accused Twitter of refusing to reveal the extent of its spam bot and pretend accounts.

The surprising flip within the months-long drama of Musk and Twitter despatched that firm’s shares down 1.5 %, probably angering shareholders who had filed swimsuit towards Musk final month, accusing him of deflating the inventory worth. Twitter’s shares have tumbled greater than 20 % within the final month. They closed at $40.13 (roughly Rs. 3,100) Tuesday, up 57 cents.

Paxton’s uncommon transfer struck observers as singular and presumably inappropriate, although he probably has the authorized authority to pursue it. In launching his investigation, Paxton urged that Twitter might need violated Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The state lawyer normal’s transfer towards Twitter is much completely different from the rising authorized actions taken by teams of states which have joined to focus on alleged anticompetitive practices by Google and Meta, for instance, or to research TikTok and its potential dangerous results on younger customers’ psychological well being.

Individual state attorneys normal do not usually examine a serious publicly traded firm over its regulatory filings. In Twitter’s case, the info it submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission contain complicated federal legislation.

“The SEC has the resources and the expertise and the legal remedies for this, and I doubt that Texas has any of these,” Marc Fagel, a securities legislation skilled who was the regional director of the SEC’s San Francisco workplace, stated in an interview. “It’s a headline-based investigation as far as I can tell.”

Johnny Koremenos, a spokesman for the Republican Attorneys General Association, informed The Associated Press that he is unaware of every other state lawyer normal who is perhaps planning to launch an analogous investigation into Twitter.

James Tierney, a former Maine lawyer normal who teaches at Harvard, was essential of Paxton’s probe, which he sees as aiding Musk, whose electrical automobile maker Tesla not too long ago opened a plant in Texas’ capital of Austin.

“Consumer laws exist to protect consumers from real harm,” Tierney stated. “They do not exist to allow a government official to meddle in ongoing corporate transactions on behalf of a constituent.”

Paxton notes that Twitter had stated in its filings with the SEC that fewer than 5 % of all customers are bots, when, Paxton asserts, “they might in reality comprise as a lot as 20 % or extra” of the 229 million total accounts. Musk contended in a May tweet, without providing evidence, that 20 percent or more are bogus.

Paxton demanded that Twitter turn over documents by June 27 to show how it calculates and manages its user data.

“The difference could dramatically affect the cost to Texas consumers and businesses who transact with Twitter,” such as advertisers, Paxton contended in his announcement. He asserted that the disparity may inflate the value of Twitter, now estimated at $30.5 billion (roughly Rs. 2,37,200 crore), and raise the costs of doing business with it.

Twitter spokespeople declined comment Tuesday on Paxton’s announcement. The company said in a statement Monday that it has been cooperatively sharing information with Musk in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.

The Texas attorney general, who has long carved out a distinctive public persona, isn’t likely to mind any criticism. A Republican currently running for a third term as the state’s top lawyer, Paxton has yet to have his day in court after being indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, and his career has upended what it means to be a compromised officeholder in Texas.

His critics say Paxton has become an example of how powerful public figures can drag out even normally career-threatening criminal charges and defy predictions of their political demise.

Conservative Republicans, who accuse social media like Twitter of anti-conservative bias and censoring views of those opposed to abortion and others, have embraced Musk’s bid for Twitter because of his advocacy of free speech in place of the platform’s content moderation. Paxton’s fellow Texan US Senator Ted Cruz has called Musk’s move “the biggest development for free speech in decades.”