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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating fake accounts on Twitter for possible violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, expanding his effort to look under the hood of the leading social media platform to learn how the Lone Star State works.

Unreal accounts on Twitter have received new scrutiny in recent weeks as billionaire Elon Musk has expressed reservations about buying the platform, in light of the number of automated and anonymous accounts that potentially represent a larger share of users than the company suggests.

Paxton requested a civil investigation into Twitter this week to determine if Twitter made a false claim about its users that could violate Texas law.

“Texans rely on Twitter’s public statements that nearly all of its users are real people. “It’s important not just for regular Twitter users, but also for Texas businesses and advertisers who use Twitter for their livelihoods,” he said. “If Twitter misrepresents how many accounts are fake to increase their revenue, I have a duty to protect Texans.”

Twitter declined to comment on Mr Paxton’s new investigation on Tuesday. Last month, the company acknowledged in a regulatory filing that it faces challenges in measuring its users and engagement, and said their numbers may differ externally due to the various methodologies used.

In a letter to Twitter on Monday, Mr. Musk’s lawyer said the Tesla CEO believes the company is actively resisting and thwarting the company’s information rights (and related obligations) under the merger agreement by not sharing data about fake accounts on the platform.

While Mr. Musk previously estimated on Twitter that the number of fake accounts could exceed 20% of platform users, the company had shown this number to himself as much smaller.

Mr. Paxton’s new effort to collect data from Twitter is the latest confrontation in a long legal battle involving his investigation into the company’s operations.

Last year, Mr. Paxton issued a civil investigation request involving Twitter’s censorship practices governed by the company’s content moderation policies.

Twitter later sued in federal court, claiming that responding would reveal classified information, accusing Mr Paxton of retaliating for the platform’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump.

The company asked a federal judge to block Mr Paxton’s investigation, and a federal appeals court appealed in March. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Twitter’s case was not ready for a judicial decision and noted that Mr Paxton had not yet filed a claim against Twitter.

Mr. Paxton’s civil investigation request Posted this week, requests a response from Twitter by June 27.