Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Microsoft
Elon Musk is threatening to take legal action against Microsoft over claims that the company “trained illegally using Twitter data.”
The billionaire’s statement came in response to a tweet noting that Microsoft’s advertising platform announced it would stop supporting Twitter, reportedly due to Twitter’s changes requiring payment to access its API.
Musk responded to the announcement by accusing Microsoft of using Twitter data "illegally" and threatening a lawsuit. The billionaire, who bought Twitter last year, is changing the company's policy to charge businesses for access to its stream of data.
Musk responded to the announcement by accusing Microsoft of using Twitter data "illegally" and threatening a lawsuit. The billionaire, who bought Twitter last year, is changing the company's policy to charge businesses for access to its stream of data.
The software maker is the biggest investor in OpenAI, the AI research lab Musk co-founded before falling out with the team and leaving in 2018. Musk is now establishing his own rival AI effort.
It’s unclear whether Musk will actually sue Microsoft at this point, as he has threatened legal action that never happened in the past, including against the creator of the @ElonJet Twitter account.
Under Twitter’s new pricing arrangement, large companies like Microsoft could have to pay as much as $42,000 per month to gain access to Twitter’s API. The new pricing system has already led some smaller developers to abandon the platform, such as Tweetbot maker Tapbots.
In recent months, major companies including iPhone maker Apple reportedly halted advertising on the platform over concerns about how content was moderated on the site.
Mr Elon Musk added that Twitter could be profitable by the second quarter of 2023, and he would be willing to sell the company if the right person came along.
In November, Mr Musk said Twitter had seen a "massive" drop in revenue and blamed activists for pressuring advertisers.
In February, Twitter started charging for the data it collects from "hundreds of millions" of users, with a basic plan starting at $100 a month.
"But ripping off the Twitter database, demonetizing it (removing ads) and then selling our data to others isn't a winning solution," he added.
Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Biovolt Technologies staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)