Getty Photos | Christopher Furlong
Elon Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, yesterday despatched a letter to Microsoft accusing the corporate of utilizing the Twitter APIs in ways in which violated Twitter insurance policies. Spiro’s letter got here a few month after Microsoft halted API use as a substitute of paying new charges and Musk threatened to sue Microsoft, claiming it was “illegally utilizing Twitter knowledge.”
“As you might be little question conscious, for years, Microsoft has used Twitter’s customary developer APIs freed from cost with a purpose to profit from Twitter’s knowledge and providers in key Microsoft merchandise that generate tens of billions of {dollars} in income for Microsoft yearly,” Spiro wrote to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Up till final month, when it declined to pay even a reduced fee for continued entry to Twitter’s APIs and content material, Microsoft operated eight separate Twitter API apps, listed under, which seem to supply knowledge and performance for no less than 5 separate Microsoft services, together with Xbox One, Bing Pages, Azure, Energy Platform, and Advertisements.”
Twitter—which is dealing with quite a few lawsuits alleging it hasn’t paid its payments—is asking Microsoft to finish a compliance audit on its API utilization by June 7.
Spiro’s letter mentioned that by registering to make use of the Twitter API, Microsoft agreed to adjust to Twitter’s guidelines. “Nevertheless, our current overview of Microsoft’s exercise on the Microsoft Apps signifies that Microsoft could have been in violation of a number of provisions of the Settlement for an prolonged time frame,” Spiro wrote.
Microsoft accused of exceeding fee limits
One among Spiro’s allegations is that Microsoft exceeded Twitter’s API fee limits. Spiro didn’t cite a selected restrict however mentioned that Twitter prohibits API customers from exceeding or circumventing the API limits and prohibits use of the Twitter API “in a way that exceeds cheap request quantity” or “constitutes extreme or abusive utilization.”
“Microsoft Apps accessed Twitter’s APIs over 780 million occasions and retrieved over 26 billion tweets in 2022 alone,” he wrote. “Certainly, for one of many Microsoft Apps, Microsoft’s account info outright states that it intends to permit its clients to ‘go round throttling limits.'”
When contacted by Ars, Microsoft offered an announcement confirming it acquired the letter. “We heard from a regulation agency representing Twitter with some questions on our earlier use of the free Twitter API. We are going to overview these questions and reply appropriately. We sit up for persevering with our long run partnership with the corporate.”
Spiro additionally alleged that Microsoft “seems to have used the Twitter API for unauthorized makes use of and functions.” Microsoft’s “Azure Logic Apps for Fairfax app equipped Twitter content material to quite a few Microsoft endpoints that reference a authorities entity or company, even if the Settlement prohibits use of the Twitter APIs on behalf of ‘any government-related entity’ with out first ‘establish[ing] all such Authorities Finish Customers’ to Twitter,” the letter mentioned.
Microsoft was required “to reveal and acquire approval for its meant use case for every Microsoft App” and notify Twitter of any substantial change to these use circumstances, he wrote. However the firm allegedly “didn’t establish any use case for six of the eight Microsoft Apps that it continued to function till final month.”
“The Settlement additionally prohibits the registration of a number of apps for ‘a single use case or considerably related or overlapping use circumstances.’ However Microsoft registered a number of apps every for its Bing Pages, Advertisements, and Azure services, in clear violation of this provision,” Spiro wrote.
Audit could possibly be prelude to lawsuit
Lastly, Spiro claims that Microsoft violated Twitter guidelines on automation when utilizing the API for Energy Platform and Advertisements. “Microsoft’s API requests for these apps embody Twitter actions which might be topic to sure restrictions on automation, together with retweets and direct messages,” he wrote.
The letter’s audit request requested for in depth particulars on how Microsoft used Twitter APIs over the previous two years, together with “identification of any and all government-related entities served by every Microsoft App.” The audit request additionally seeks an outline of how Microsoft used token pooling and “every other means applied within the Microsoft Apps to avoid Twitter’s fee limits for the Twitter APIs.”
Twitter desires the audit to establish “all Twitter Content material… at present in Microsoft’s possession or management,” and supply information describing all Twitter content material “retained by Microsoft by means of its use of the Twitter APIs, the way and format during which such Twitter Content material was saved, and the way during which such Twitter Content material was utilized by Microsoft.” The Musk-owned firm desires particulars on any Twitter content material that Microsoft beforehand obtained and destroyed and “an outline of how such Twitter Content material was destroyed.”
The demand for a compliance audit could possibly be a prelude to a lawsuit. “They skilled illegally utilizing Twitter knowledge. Lawsuit time,” Musk tweeted on April 19 in a response to Microsoft dropping Twitter from its promoting platform as a substitute of paying Twitter’s new API charges.
