AI firms are accused by Elon Musk of stealing sensitive Twitter user data.

(Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images) In this photo illustration, the logo for the Twitter social media network is projected onto a man on August 09, 2017, in London, England. With around 328 million users worldwide, Twitter has gone from a small start-up for the public in 2006 to a broadcast tool for politicians and corporations in 2017.

Because of this, the billionaire decided to temporarily require users to sign in before they can read the platform's tweets.

Although some Twitter content requires users to have accounts before they can access them, the social media giant has been allowing consumers to see public tweets even without having an account.

But, because of the information theft accusations against AI companies, Elon Musk decided to change this.

AI Firms Allegedly Steal Twitter User Data, Claims Elon Musk

According to Business Insider's latest report, the temporary sign-in requirement on Twitter is among the drastic efforts made by Elon Musk to prevent AI companies from stealing user data.

(Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images) In this photo illustration, a phone screen displays the Twitter account of Elon Musk with a photo of him shown in the background, on April 14, 2022, in Washington, DC. - Tesla chief Elon Musk has launched a hostile takeover bid for Twitter, insisting it was a "best and final offer" and that he was the only person capable of unlocking the full potential of the platform.

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This was confirmed by the tech executive on Friday, June 30. "Any social media companies that allow unauthenticated access will become bot-strewn hellscapes as soon as they become relevant," said the billionaire via his official Twitter post.

Because of this, the social media giant decided to prevent unregistered users from viewing tweets.
Aside from this, Twitter also restricted post previews when links are shared on Facebook Messenger and other apps.

Hundreds of AI Companies Scrap Twitter Data

In a reply to Tim Sweeney's Twitter post about Twitter's new restriction, Elon Musk explained that it was conducted because hundreds of AI companies are scraping Twitter data. 

The billionaire stated that these firms are stealing sensitive information aggressively to the point where real users' experiences are negatively impacted. 

Although Sweeney seemingly criticized Twitter's action, Elon Musk still said that he is open to new ideas on how to protect user data. 

Tim suggested using infosec engineering and taking legal action against companies commercially exploiting the platform. 

However, the billionaire explained why Sweeney's suggestions are not valid. Here are the three reasons he provided: 

1. Scraping is already disallowed by T&C. 
2. The scraping orgs dgaf & mask their IPs through proxy servers or through orgs that appear legit. For example, a recent massive scraping operation originating from Oracle IP addresses was just using their servers as a laundromat. 
3. We absolutely will take legal action against those who stole our data & look forward to seeing them in court, which is (optimistically) 2 to 3 years from now. 

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