Elon Musk has pulled out of a deal to take over Twitter for $44bn (£36.5bn).

In a statement provided to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, representatives for Mr Musk said Twitter breached terms of an agreement and “appears to have made false and misleading representations”.

They said Twitter had also failed to provide data and information requested by Mr Musk to enable him to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts” on the social media platform.

“Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the statement continued.

As a result of Mr Musk’s decision, shares of Twitter fell 6% in extended trading.

It is not entirely clear whether Twitter’s board will accept a $1bn (£830 million) break-up fee or if there will be a court battle over the deal.

The possible unravelling of the deal is just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media sites.

‘Wait for your mind to be blown’: James Webb Space Telescope to show the universe as it has never been seen before

NASA criticises Russia for using space station to stage propaganda photographs

Global wheat production can be doubled to feed millions and save land, say scientists

Much of the drama has played out on Twitter, with Mr Musk – who has more than 95 million followers – lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

The chief executive of Tesla had previously threatened to halt the deal unless the company proved spam and bot accounts were fewer than 5% of users who see advertising on its service.

Last month, Twitter gave Mr Musk access to its “firehose”, which is its storage location of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets.

Related posts:

Tiger Woods grateful for ‘touching’ gesture as golf stars don his signature colours in crash tribute Derek Chauvin’s trial over George Floyd’s killing told: ‘This wasn’t policing, this was murder’ US death row inmate asks to be executed by firing squad rather than lethal injection Derek Chauvin being held in isolation 23-hours-a-day ‘for his safety’ Black man fatally shot by police in his car as he was served with search warrant FBI searches home of Gabby Petito’s missing fiance Brian Laundrie Human remains found in Wyoming identified as missing Gabby Petito, as coroner rules death a homicide Lawyer who successfully argued landmark abortion rights case dies aged 76 Apple boss granted restraining order against woman who claimed he’d fathered her twins ‘Do something Democrats’: Abortion rights supporters gather outside US Supreme Court Almost two thirds of Americans will throw their support behind pro abortion rights’ politicians in upcoming election Teacher wounded in Uvalde school shooting condemns ‘coward’ police for failing to save students