Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has signaled a potential lawsuit against Microsoft following the company’s announcement to exclude Twitter from its advertising platform.
Musk took to Twitter to express his views, stating, “They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.”
Microsoft’s notification indicated that as of April 25, its advertising platform will cease to support Twitter.
This decision follows Twitter’s recent introduction of fees for accessing its API, with rates beginning at $42,000 (approximately Rs. 34,51,600) per month.
According to Microsoft, starting April 25, users will be unable to access their Twitter accounts through the Digital Marketing Center. This restriction includes the inability to schedule, create, or manage tweets and tweet drafts, as well as viewing past tweets and engagement metrics on Microsoft’s Advertising platform.
Microsoft’s statement read, “Starting on April 25, 2023, Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter.” Users of Microsoft Advertising are receiving similar communications confirming that support for Twitter will end on the same date.
This announcement from Microsoft occurred just a day after Elon Musk attended a significant marketing and advertising conference, where he sought to encourage brands to return to the platform. Twitter has reportedly lost nearly half of its major advertisers since Musk’s acquisition of the platform.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who took over Twitter last year, is also implementing a policy change that will charge businesses for access to Twitter’s data stream.
Previously, the Microsoft Advertising feature allowed advertisers to manage their social media presence across multiple platforms from one location. Users could respond to tweets and direct messages (DMs), along with messages from Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Although Microsoft’s social media management service was free for advertisers, it was prominently integrated into the Digital Marketing Center dashboard.
This feature complemented the platform’s social and search advertising tools, facilitating businesses in executing and managing their paid ad campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram, in addition to Microsoft’s search advertising.
Microsoft reported more than $12 billion (around Rs. 98,600 crore) in digital advertising revenue last year, derived from ads created, managed, and executed through its Advertising platform.
