Why is Elon Musk suing Microsoft?

Elon Musk has made an allegation against Microsoft, claiming that they have violated Twitter’s data usage policies. His statement was prompted by a tweet regarding Microsoft’s decision to discontinue support for Twitter’s advertising platform, which is reportedly linked to Twitter’s new API payment requirements.

“They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit Time.” – Elon Musk says on Twitter.

Microsoft’s Announcement For Twitter
On April 25, 2023, Microsoft announced that Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter on its advertising platform due to Twitter’s newly announced minimum monthly charge of $42,000. Which is why Microsoft users lost access to Twitter account management features such as creating and managing drafts or tweets, viewing past tweets and engagement, and scheduling tweets.

In January, Twitter announced that it would require payment for access to its API, effective February 9. Elon Musk cited the abuse of the free API tool by fake bots and scammers and suggested that a monthly subscription fee of almost $100, which requires ID verification, would assist in “greatly cleaning things up.”

Twitter will be introducing a new write-only API for bots that provide good content, as per a tweet by Elon Musk. The company had previously shut down API access for certain third-party clients, but Musk announced in February that the API will be available for free for bots with good content. It is unclear what constitutes ‘good content’ and if this applies to both existing and future bots. Bloomberg