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It looks like Elon Musk is moving to carry out his threat to sue Microsoft after the company refused to pay Twitters new API access fees.

On Thursday, Musks personal lawyer, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Microsoft, accusing the software giant of violating Twitters rules on its API use, according(Opens in a new window) to The New York Times.

PCMag also obtained the letter(Opens in a new window) from Spiros office, and it reveals Microsoft allegedly collected a massive number of tweets through Twitters API, even though the social media company enforces rate limits(Opens in a new window) on the access.

Despite these limitations, the Microsoft Apps accessed Twitters APIs over 780 million times and retrieved over 26 billion tweets in 2022 alone, Spiro wrote. Indeed, for one of the Microsoft Apps, Microsofts account information outright states that it intends to allow its customers to go around throttling limits.

Twitters API allows third-party apps and sites to quickly pull and post information to the social media platform. But under Elon Musk, Twitter has begun charging for access to the API, which has prompted companies including Microsoft to bail on the fee, which can range from $42,000 to as much as $210,000 per month.

As a result, Microsoft was recently forced to drop Twitter support from the companys Smart Campaigns advertising platform. In response, Musk signaled he was ready to sue while implying Microsoft had abused Twitters API access to train its AI algorithms.

They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time, Musk said in a tweet(Opens in a new window) last month.

Spiros letter doesnt mention anything about Microsoft using the Twitter API access to train AI language models. Instead, it focuses on how Redmond allegedly operated eight separate Twitter API apps to supply services to Microsoft products and services, including Xbox One, Bing Pages, Azure, Power Platform, and Ads.

(Credit: Alex Spiro)

The (Twitter API) Agreement makes clear that Microsoft was obligated to disclose and obtain approval for its intended use case for each Microsoft App, and to notify Twitter of any substantive modification to those use cases. Yet Microsoft did not identify any use case for six of the eight Microsoft Apps that it continued to operate until last month, Spiro wrote.

Musks lawyer has also uncovered evidence Microsoft collected data from Twitters API for unnamed government clients. The Agreement prohibits use of the Twitter APIs on behalf of any government-related entity without first identify[ing] all such Government End Users to Twitter. Yet Microsoft did not provide any such notification to Twitter, Spiro wrote.

Hes now demanding Microsoft undergo a a compliance audit to verify whether it broke the rules. This includes Microsoft identifying all the Twitter content its currently in possession of, along with records on how the data is being used.

This could lead to bigger legal action if Twitters audit finds more wrongdoing, or if Microsoft refuses to comply. Spiro asked the software giant to provide the requested information by June 7.

A lawsuit would also occur as Musk is developing his own AI chatbot program to compete against OpenAIs ChatGPT, which Microsoft is using to power Bing. Musk has since take several shots at OpenAI, including possibly suing the company, which he ironically helped found.

For now, Microsoft has only indicated it plans on cooperating with Spiro on the compliance audit. We heard from a law firm representing Twitter with some questions about our previous use of the free Twitter API. We will review these questions and respond appropriately. We look forward to continuing our long term partnership with the company, Microsoft said in a statement.

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Elon Musk's Lawyer Accuses Microsoft of Abusing Twitter's API to ... - PCMag