Microsoft drops Twitter from advertising platform; ‘Lawsuit time,’ says Musk
Tech giant Microsoft has announced that it is dropping Twitter from its advertising platform days after the Elon Musk-helmed company said it would charge for its Application Programming Interface (API) access.
The decision by Microsoft has elicited an angry response from Musk, who has warned of a lawsuit.
NEWS: Microsoft drops Twitter from its advertising platform as they refuse to pay Twitter’s API fees. pic.twitter.com/dY6YBIxjo5
— T(w)itter Daily News (@TitterDaily) April 19, 2023
Also read: Twitter or Titter? Elon Musk drops ‘w’, San Francisco will have none of it
“Starting on April 25, 2023, Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter,” Microsoft said.
The company also said that the “Digital Marketing Center (DMC) will no longer support Twitter starting on April 25, 2023” in an email sent to Microsoft Advertising users.
This means Microsoft advertisers would no longer be able to access their Twitter account through Twitter’s Digital Marketing Centre’s social media tool. They also wouldn’t be able to create and manage drafts or tweets, view past tweets and engagement and schedule tweets.
However, other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn will continue to be available on Microsoft’s advertising platform.
Responding to the decision, Twitter owner Elon Musk accused Microsoft of training illegally using Twitter data.
They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
Also read: Elon Musk replaces Twitter’s blue bird logo with ‘Doge’ meme
“They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time,” Musk tweeted.
The decision by Microsoft comes after Musk announced that Twitter would start charging $42,000 a month for its API access as part of a new subscription plan starting April 29.
The advertising feature of Microsoft was a one-stop destination for advertisers where they could manage multiple social media accounts. It enabled them to reply to tweets and DMs as well as messages received on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn on a single platform.
Also read: Elon Musk vs Halli: Here’s what happened on Twitter
The entire social media service, featured in Microsoft Advertising’s Digital Marketing Center dashboard, was completely free of cost. The company, reportedly, raked in $2 billion in digital advertising revenue last year from ads created, managed and run through its advertising platform.
