Elon Musk v. Twitter: What Twitter’s ESG Report Reveals
Written By: Michael Kraten, PhD, CPA - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkraten/
As the Musk / Twitter dispute marches on towards the trial phase, Musk continues to accuse his former target of being unable or unwilling to produce accurate management accounting metrics. But could Musk have done anything to assess this concern before launching his bid?
He could have visited the "Twitter For Good" page on the firm’s site. He could have clicked on the download link for its 2020 Global Impact Report. He would have seen (on the Report’s final page) that Twitter has only chosen to report on the TC-IM-130, 220, 230, 330, and 520 series from SASB’s Internet Media & Services standards.
What is missing from that TC-IM list of SASB metrics? The TC-IM-000 series requires the disclosure of an “entity defined measure of user activity.” According to SASB, “The entity shall define and disclose a basic measure of customer activity suitable for its business activities. This may include ... monthly active users ... or page views.” By excluding TC-IM-000, Twitter selectively ignored a fundamental SASB disclosure.
There are other oddities in Twitter’s Report. For instance, on the final page, Twitter notes its disclosure of “(1) Total water withdrawn, (2) total water consumed, percentage of each in regions with High or Extremely High Baseline Water Stress.” It refers the reader to its Report section named “Planet: Energy Management” for the data. However, that Section offers no such data.
Finally, on Page 5, Twitter expresses pride in producing a 2020 Global Impact Report that explicitly relies on the SASB and GRI frameworks. However, the GRI is not mentioned anywhere else in the Report, and there is no 2021 version of the Report.
Had Musk glanced at Twitter’s ESG report before launching his acquisition effort, he might have noticed that the firm produced a document with many serious flaws. It’s a clear indication that, when one ignores publicly available ESG reports, one does so at one’s own risk.
