Really, AG Paxton? What a waste of Texas resources to go after Twitter over this issue

Texas’ elected officials have an obligation to use their clout to help Texans. But sometimes, the state meddles or uses its power to grandstand and garner notoriety.

This is where we find ourselves again with Ken Paxton.

On Monday, the state attorney general announced his office was launching an investigation into Twitter for “potentially misleading Texans on the number of its ‘bot’ users.”

Paxton said: “I have a duty to protect Texans if Twitter is misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up their revenue.”

Around 229 million people — just 4% of the global population — use Twitter, and the company has said before that fake users, or “bots,” represent less than 5% of its accounts. Paxton thinks that number is higher.

It ostensibly affects the value of Twitter. An inflated number could raise revenue under false pretenses.

“Bot accounts can not only reduce the quality of users’ experience on the platform but may also inflate the value of the company and the costs of doing business with it, thus directly harming Texas consumers and businesses,” Paxton said.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, who recently relocated his companies to Texas, has also asked Twitter to provide him with the correct number of “bots” using the platform and has withheld closing on his deal to purchase the social media giant until that is resolved.

Paxton is basing the premise for his investigation on the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. After all, false reporting of fake users could be considered “false, misleading, or deceptive.”

All this makes some sense, save for one question: How does this really help Texans? Furthermore, with all that Texas is facing — from gun access and school safety to power grid issues and a frustrating border scene — is this worth the attorney general’s time and attention?

Paxton’s succeeded with this before, which is likely why he’s repeating the course. He recently sued Meta, the parent conglomerate of Instagram and Facebook. He alleged that the way Meta uses biometrics violated Texans’ privacy, and now face filters are temporarily disabled in Texas.

The concern for individual privacy is a noble gesture, but I’m not sure the efforts expended were worth the end result.

Paxton also went after Twitter in 2021 after it banned President Donald Trump.

To Paxton, these are lawsuits on principle — but to the rest of us, they look like adult-versions of middle school squabbles. On top of that, they seem like a waste of taxpayer-funded resources.

Aside from the small percentage of Texans who are invested in Twitter stock, no one is worried about the number of “bots” on Twitter or how that may affect Twitter’s market value. The average Texan is struggling to pay for gas, food and rent and worrying about school safety and gun violence.

Still, we can rest easy knowing that the legal superpower in our state is filing lawsuits against social media companies to ensure they walk the line. Principled as it may be, most Texans don’t want their state officials wasting resources on things this irrelevant.