Elon Musk threatens to sue Microsoft, claiming tech giant was ‘illegally using Twitter data’

Musk's comments came just hours after Microsoft announced it would be dropping Twitter from its advertising platform, choosing not to pay for its application programming interfaces, software that helps with automated marketing.

"They trained illegally using Twitter data," Musk tweeted. "Lawsuit time."

In response to criticism from independent journalist Brian Krassenstein, who argued that the move might hurt Twitter's ability to generate outside traffic, Musk said he was "open to ideas" that would benefit all parties.

"Ripping off the Twitter database, demonetizing it (removing ads) and then selling our data to others isn't a winning solution," he added.

Microsoft revealed Wednesday that Twitter would no longer be available on its Microsoft Advertising plan effective next week.

"Starting on April 25, 2023, Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter," the company wrote in a post on their website. "You'll be unable to access your Twitter account through our social media management tool, create and manage drafts or Tweets, view past Tweets and engagement," and schedule Tweets."

As the Daily Mail reports, under Musk's leadership, Twitter began charging for access to its API in February, to the ire of researchers who had enjoyed accessing it for free. Musk argued that it was an integral part of making the company profitable.

Rates vary from $42,000 per month for access to 50 million tweets to upwards of $210,000 for 200 million tweets.

According to Digiday, Musk made an appearance at a major marketing and advertising conference on Tuesday attempting to woo reluctant advertisers back to the platform.

"Advertising goes all the way from spam to compelling content," he said, "and I really want to focus on obviously the compelling content, to make it relevant, make it interesting."