Elon Musk claimed he would sue Microsoft after accusing the company of “illegally” using Twitter’s data in a viral tweet on Wednesday night.
Microsoft has reportedly dropped Twitter from an advertising service it runs to help customers manage their various social media accounts.
The development comes after Twitter began charging businesses to access their user data, something essential to running targeted ads.
The tech billionaire drooped the bombshell claim via a tweet after the news broke that Microsoft wouldn’t pay Twitter’s API fees. Microsoft’s service uses Artificial Intelligence to help ad buyers manage their different social media accounts.
“They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time,” Musk posted beneath an article discussing the move to cut Twitter from the service.
READ MORE: Squatters trashed woman’s house and threw poo in eviction nightmare
Microsoft’s service will still support Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Musk says that Twitter’s API, which costs a minimum of $100 a month, helps businesses “understand, track, and benchmark the conversations and perceptions surrounding your brand”.
It appears that he is seeking to monetise the data to help boost Twitter’s revenue by bringing in more cash from businesses.
Musk also aimed to boost the social media giant’s finances by selling the subscription service Twitter Blue which sees subscribers gain the blue verification check next to their name.
When Musk took over Twitter for $44 billion (£38 billion) last October, he made several dire assessments of the company’s finances and said it could even face bankruptcy.
The lawsuit threat comes after Musk announced plans to launch a chatbot to rival Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, which he claimed is trained “to be politically correct”.
Elon Musk was co-founder of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, but left the company in 2019. OpenAI’s biggest financial backer is now Microsoft.
Twitter no longer has a press office and instead responds to journalists’ inquiries with a poop emoji.
Follow our social media accounts here on facebook.com/ExpressUSNews and @expressusnews
