Music publishers sued Twitter for more than $250 million in damages

Music publishers sued Twitter for more than $250 million in damages on Wednesday, alleging that the social media platform “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”

The lawsuit alleges that for years, Twitter has allowed users of its platform to share copyrighted songs without a license. It also claims Twitter’s misconduct has only gotten worse since Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion last fall and slashed staff.

Twitter’s alleged permissiveness around users sharing copyrighted songs, combined with the social network’s promotion of tweets with copyrighted music, has unlawfully helped fuel the company’s growth, according to the National Music Publishers’ Association, whose members include Universal, Sony and Warner Music Group.