The Gloves Are Off: Elon Musk Enraged By Microsoft

“Lawsuit Time,” Says Elon Musk after Microsoft Passes On Paying For Twitter’s High-Priced API

“Starting on Apr. 25, 2023, Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter,” Microsoft said on its site. This statement will have resounding effects on Twitter users and has evoked a reaction from Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are increasingly becoming a prestigious product in the tech industry. An API allows an application to connect with another and make use of its data to perform specific tasks. Elon Musk wants companies to pay for access to the social platform’s data.

However, as per the statement, it is clear that Microsoft is not interested in paying for such access. Microsoft announced that it would be removing Twitter from its API-based advertising platform next week instead of paying to retain access.

So, what does this mean for the Twitter user? As Quartz reports, by the quoted date (25th April), users will not be able to access their accounts through Microsoft’s Digital Marketing Center’s social media management tool. Users will also be able unable to create tweets, manage draft tweets, view past tweets or their engagements, or schedule tweets.

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The statement by Microsoft however, went on to clarify that, “other social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn will continue to be available.”

How Much Do Twitter APIs Cost?

On February second, Twitter announced one of the biggest changes to its platform in Elon Musk’s largely controversial era as the company’s CEO. Twitter was finally shutting down free basic API access. Every user including learners and researchers would have to pay for access to Twitter’s data.

On February 9th, the company announced that it would charge $100 per month for the basic tier of API. This would give developers access to a “low level of API usage.” It was also announced that these developers would be limited to posting 1,500 tweets per month (or two tweets per hour).

The case for top-tier API users which large companies like Microsoft fall under is a different one. The packages for such users start at $42,000 per month, offering access to 50 million tweets, and range up to $210,000 per month for the highest plan providing access to 200 million tweets. The “middle” package for these users offers access to 100 million tweets for $125,000.

These prices sparked controversy, especially considering the unusual pricing model. This is because the 100 million tweet package costs $125,000 pm instead of $84,000 if extrapolated from the 50-million-tweet package.

On why they needed to charge heavily for API access, Elon said in a tweet that free API was being exploited by “bot scammers & opinion manipulators.” The company’s official Twitter account Tweeted, “Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.”

Elon Musk’s Reaction To Microsoft’s Statement

After the news broke, Twitter CEO was as would be expected angered by the move and he made sure to express his displeasure on the platform. On April 19th, 2023, Elon Musk replied to a tweet by ‘@TitterDaily’ who broke the news.

Elon’s tweet read, “They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.” The “training” that Elon is referencing in this scenario is that OpenAI trained their ChatGPT model using Twitter data. Elon’s reaction has hinted at a possible battle between him and the tech giant as he prepares to launch a new language model to rival ChatGPT by Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

As TechCrunch posits, it’s more than likely that Microsoft has the cash to pay for the API after the successful year that was 2022 for them. Therefore, it can be assumed that Microsoft’s stance on the matter is more of a statement.

Will the tension between Microsoft and Twitter escalate? Only time will tell.