Twitter Facing $250 Million Lawsuit from Music Publishers for Alleged Copyright Infringement
Twitter is facing another significant legal challenge as a group of over a dozen music publishers has lodged a $250 million lawsuit against the social media giant. The publishers claim that Twitter has committed “massive” copyright violations on its platform.
The lawsuit, filed by the National Music Publishers Association, claims that Twitter users have violated artists’ copyrights thousands of times and that the company has done little to stop it. It notes that Twitter is the only major social platform without licensing agreements.
According to The New York Times, Twitter had been in talks about such a deal, but the talks eventually broke down. “While numerous Twitter competitors recognize the need for appropriate licenses and agreements to use their musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter’s failure to do so results in massive copyright infringements that harm music creators,” the filing states.
The lawsuit also accuses Twitter of ignoring music publishers’ requests to remove copyright-infringing material from its platform despite weekly notifications from the publishers. “The reality is that Twitter routinely ignores known repeat violations and known violations and refuses to take the simple steps available to Twitter to stop these specific instances of infringement of which it is aware,” the suit says.
The suit also alleges that verified users are now sharing many offensive tweets and that Twitter is likely to take action against verified accounts. “Twitter did not suspend virtually any of the verified accounts with large followings identified in the NMPA notices,” the suit says. “Twitter gives them preferential treatment because they see accounts that are verified and have a large following as more valuable and marketable than accounts that are unverified and have a small number of followers.”
While the lawsuit says copyright infringement has been a problem at Twitter for years, it says things have gotten worse since Elon Musk took over the company and that things are “messed up” internally. Notably, the lawsuit also cites tweets from Musk himself, in which he criticized copyright law and called the “overzealous DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act]” a “scourge on humanity.”
“This statement and others like it put pressure on Twitter employees, including those on its trust and safety team, to address issues related to copyright and infringement,” the music publishers say.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
