Image: © fewerton/Stock.adobe.com
Starting 25 April, users of Microsoft’s social management tool will no longer have access to Twitter. Unsurprisingly, Musk is not happy.
Elon Musk’s plans to make Twitter profitable face a fresh stumbling block as Microsoft has decided to drop the social media company from its advertising platform next week.
In an update posted yesterday (19 April), Microsoft said Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter starting 25 April.
It means users will be unable to access their Twitter account through Microsoft’s social management tool or perform tasks such as create and manage tweets, view past tweets and engagement, or even schedule tweets.
However, the software giant confirmed that other social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn will continue to be available.
The move comes a little over two months since Musk decided to end free access to Twitter’s basic API and launch a paid version, which now costs a whopping $42,000 per month – pricing out nearly everyone according to Wired. The free service was used by organisations and researchers.
They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
Soon after Microsoft made the announcement, Musk threatened to sue the company on Twitter.
“They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time,” Musk wrote in response to a tweet about Microsoft dropping Twitter from its advertising platform because it refuses to pay its API fees.
Microsoft and Twitter don’t have the most cordial of relationships, especially after the former started pumping billions into ChatGPT creator OpenAI – a company Musk co-founded in 2015 and left after disagreements with colleagues.
Twitter is also investing in the space and Musk has even created a new company called X.AI to compete with OpenAI, reportedly gathering interest from some SpaceX and Tesla investors.
When Twitter first announced it was moving away from the free API model earlier this year, the development team offered a statement of its intent and commitment to deliver a quality API service to paying customers.
“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion tweets, with billions more every week,” the team wrote.
“Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast and comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.”
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