Elon Musk’s lawyer accuses Microsoft of abusing its access to Twitter data


Elon Musk’s personal lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter on behalf of Twitter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that accuses Microsoft of violating Twitter’s developer agreement, as reported by The New York Times. In the Thursday letter (available in full below), Spiro claims that Microsoft may have been in violation of “multiple provisions” of Twitter’s developer agreement “for an extended period of time.”

Until recently, Microsoft had integrated Twitter’s APIs with some of its products — Twitter’s letter claims Microsoft operated “eight separate Twitter API apps” integrated with products like Xbox, Bing, and its ads platform. But it began pulling support for those APIs in April, including dropping clip sharing to Twitter from Xbox, likely due to Twitter’s new and generally more expensive API tiers.

According to the letter, examples of Microsoft violating Twitter’s developer agreement include using the API for “unauthorized uses and purposes” and Microsoft not informing Twitter of “any use case for six of the eight Microsoft Apps that it continued to operate until last month.” Claiming their agreement requires full cooperation from Microsoft, Spiro’s letter requests a “compliance audit” for each of the eight apps through April 2023, when Microsoft shut them down. It demands a broad swath of information from Microsoft about each of the apps and how it used Twitter data, all provided by June 7th.

Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw shared the following statement with The Verge. “Today 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.” The company also told the NYT that it doesn’t currently pay Twitter for data.

Twitter’s press email replied to a request for comment with a poop emoji, as it has since March.

Spiro’s letter doesn’t mention any pending legal action. However, in April, Musk already threatened to sue Microsoft because it “trained illegally using Twitter data,” seemingly referring to data used to train large language models used in chatbots like Microsoft’s Bing and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Other companies have taken less drastic approaches to try and benefit from training those models; Reddit, for example, recently announced API changes to let it better monetize its data.



Source link


Elon Musk’s personal lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter on behalf of Twitter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that accuses Microsoft of violating Twitter’s developer agreement, as reported by The New York Times. In the Thursday letter (available in full below), Spiro claims that Microsoft may have been in violation of “multiple provisions” of Twitter’s developer agreement “for an extended period of time.”

Until recently, Microsoft had integrated Twitter’s APIs with some of its products — Twitter’s letter claims Microsoft operated “eight separate Twitter API apps” integrated with products like Xbox, Bing, and its ads platform. But it began pulling support for those APIs in April, including dropping clip sharing to Twitter from Xbox, likely due to Twitter’s new and generally more expensive API tiers.

According to the letter, examples of Microsoft violating Twitter’s developer agreement include using the API for “unauthorized uses and purposes” and Microsoft not informing Twitter of “any use case for six of the eight Microsoft Apps that it continued to operate until last month.” Claiming their agreement requires full cooperation from Microsoft, Spiro’s letter requests a “compliance audit” for each of the eight apps through April 2023, when Microsoft shut them down. It demands a broad swath of information from Microsoft about each of the apps and how it used Twitter data, all provided by June 7th.

Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw shared the following statement with The Verge. “Today 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.” The company also told the NYT that it doesn’t currently pay Twitter for data.

Twitter’s press email replied to a request for comment with a poop emoji, as it has since March.

Spiro’s letter doesn’t mention any pending legal action. However, in April, Musk already threatened to sue Microsoft because it “trained illegally using Twitter data,” seemingly referring to data used to train large language models used in chatbots like Microsoft’s Bing and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Other companies have taken less drastic approaches to try and benefit from training those models; Reddit, for example, recently announced API changes to let it better monetize its data.



Source link

More from author

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related posts

Advertismentspot_img

Latest posts

How a Windows shake-up could position Microsoft to capitalize on AI PCs

After Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay departed Microsoft last year, the software giant quickly split his two divisions into two different teams....

Google backtracks, Pixel 8 will get Gemini Nano

Google walked back...

BREAKING: FTX Sam Bankman-Fried Faces 25-Year Prison-Term

In a landmark decision impacting both the crypto and NFT realms, Sam Bankman-Fried—the former chief of the now-ceased FTX exchange and NFT marketplace—has been sentenced...

Want to stay up to date with the latest news?

We would love to hear from you! Please fill in your details and we will stay in touch. It's that simple!