Elon Musk says it's "lawsuit time" after claiming Microsoft is stealing data

San Francisco, California - Elon Musk is mulling over the idea of suing Microsoft after claiming the tech company has been stealing data from Twitter.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is considering filling a lawsuit against tech giant Microsoft.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk is considering filling a lawsuit against tech giant Microsoft.  © IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

On Wednesday, the account T(w)itter Daily News posted a tweet claiming that Microsoft had dropped Twitter from its advertising platform "as they refuse to pay Twitter's [application programming interface] fees."

Musk, Twitter's CEO who bought the company for $44 billion back in October, chimed in.

"They trained illegally using Twitter data," he responded. "Lawsuit time."

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According to Forbes, Microsoft's advertising platform allows brands to manage multiple social media feeds on one dashboard.

Microsoft recently dropped Twitter from the service without explanation, but some speculate the choice came as Twitter plans to raise the price of their API – a service that allows users to integrate Twitter services – to a hefty $42,000 a month.

Beginning April 25, users of the Microsoft platform will no longer be able to use it to maintain their Twitter accounts, but will retain access to other platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Musk didn't provide any proof of his claim, but when pressed for more information by another Twitter user, he accused Microsoft of "ripping off the Twitter database, demonetizing it (removing ads) and then selling our data to others."

Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / Zoonar, imagebroker & ZUMA Wire

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