MAM
Twitter to address Elon Musk’s demands by providing crucial tweet data
MUMBAI: In a bid to end the standoff between the company and Elon Musk, Twitter will grant Tesla’s CEO unprecedented access to its “firehose” of public tweet data, The Washington Post reported. With this, the tech giant seeks to assuage Musk’s concerns over fake or automated accounts by yielding access to the firehose API, which contains ‘every tweet as it is posted.’
Twitter’s firehose API, in its entirety, shows what a user would see if they followed every account on Twitter — although the sheer volume of data is impossible to obtain or analyse without automation. Due to its value for ad-targeting and platform surveillance, it is also one of the company’s most closely held resources.
Firehose data could be immensely valuable as raw material for a study on automated activity. However, conducting a full study of automated activity would require significant time and resources, given the sheer scale of the data.
Providing valuable data could help Twitter score political points over Musk, as the micro networking platform seeks to fend off Musk’s qualms over the number of bots or automated accounts on the platform, and ensure that he honours his part of the buyout deal.
The news comes just days after the maverick billionaire once again threatened to back out of his deal to purchase Twitter, accusing it of failing to provide data on fake accounts.
In his filing with the US Securities Exchange on Monday, Musk accused Twitter of breaching its April agreement by not providing him sufficient data on automated accounts, rejecting the company’s offer to provide more detail on its internal studies of the issue.
Musk legally committed to purchasing Twitter in April this year, but since then has been increasingly vocal about growing bot activity on the platform, in what is seen by many as an attempt to renegotiate the deal on more favourable terms or cancel it altogether.
ALSO READ |The Twitter-Elon Musk tussle: To be ‘bot’ or not to be
“Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details regarding the company’s testing methodologies is tantamount to refusing Musk’s data requests,” Musk’s representatives said in the filing. “At this point, Musk believes Twitter is transparently refusing to comply with its obligations under the merger agreement.”
Despite all this, Twitter Inc. remains confident the deal will proceed as planned. In an internal meeting, a senior company executive assured employees that the deal was proceeding normally and set for a shareholder vote in late July or early August.
Meanwhile, the networking giant’s stock continues to trade well below the $54.20 price set by Musk, reflecting market skepticism that the deal will go through as agreed.
In response to Musk’s SEC filing, Twitter issued a statement earlier this week. “Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Musk to consummate the transaction by the terms of the merger agreement,” the statement reads. “We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
