Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter has taken another turn, with the Tesla founder revealing that the deal is "temporarily on hold".

He seems to be concerned that spam or fake accounts only make up less than 5 per cent of the social media network's daily active users. Allegedly, he estimated that figure to be much higher and part of his mission statement was to remove the spam bots.

Twitter executives revealed the statistic during the company's latest filing, with Musk now requiring evidence before the buyout can proceed.

Twitter's current board also suggested that Musk's plans for the platform could be unsettling advertiser. Until the deal is closed there is "potential uncertainty regarding our future plans and strategy," it said.

Since having his $44 billion acquisition approved by Twitter, Elon Musk has outlined some controversial plans for the network.

He has publicly stated that he intends lift existing lifetime bans, including the one imposed on Donald Trump for repeated misuse, and invite extreme views back to the platform. And he will change the punishment for those who breach Twitter's codes of practice to short term suspensions.

He may also charge businesses to embed tweets and even have a verified account.