Twitter shared wrong data: Admits overstating daily active users since 2019

Twitter didn't have as many users as it believed, a situation that may have prompted the company to immidiately accepting Elon Musk's $44 billion offer to take the firm private.

According to its Q1 2022 earnings report, which was released this morning, Twitter admitted that it had been overcounting the number of users on its site for at least three years due to a technical issue affecting linked accounts.

For three years, Twitter has exaggerated the number of daily users on its site, overstating by up to 1.9 million users per quarter.

These incorrect usage numbers were given for Q1 2019 through Q4 2021.

This isn't the first time Twitter has done something like this.

Twitter also discovered in 2017 that it had been overstating its user numbers by around 1 million to 2 million users for the previous three years.

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The reoccurring error was discovered today in Twitter's first-quarter 2022 earnings announcement.

Even when compared to last quarter's inflated estimate, Twitter now has 229 million daily users, an increase of more than 10 million.

They are, however, one last embarrassing gaffe for Twitter as it negotiates a deal to be taken private, at which point it will no longer be required to reveal these numbers publicly.

Twitter reported a $128 million operating loss on $1.2 billion in revenue, which was in line with the company's own forecast for the quarter.

Twitter cited "headwinds linked to the war in Ukraine" for a 16 percent increase in revenue year over year.

(With inputs from agencies)