Elon Musk stated a multi-billion dollar deal to acquire social media giant Twitter was temporarily on hold over spam and fake user accounts operating on the platform.

Musk tweeted the proposed $44 billion acquisition was paused “pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 per cent of users”.

He followed this post shortly after with a tweet stating: “Still committed to acquisition.”

Twitter released a filing earlier this week citing 5 per cent of spam/bot accounts represented its monetisable daily active users during Q1, days after Musk had stated one of his priorities following his proposed takeover was to remove such accounts from the platform.

Earlier in the week, Musk had outlined plans to reverse a Twitter ban on former US President Donald Trump should he takeover.

Perhaps in a link to Musk’s pending shake-up, Twitter also sacked GM Kayvon Beykpour and head of revenue and product Bruce Falck, as well as pausing hiring unless it was for business critical roles.

Last week, it appeared Musk was closing in on the deal after a filing showed he had secured an additional $7 billion to take control of the company, as well as stating he would take over as CEO on an interim basis.