By: Yusuf Balogun
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has filed a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, alleging "massive" copyright infringement.
The lawsuit claims that Twitter has allowed countless infringing copies of musical compositions on its platform, violating copyright laws.
The NMPA represents 17 music publishers and lists around 1,700 songs included in multiple copyright notices to Twitter without any action taken.
Twitter had reportedly cut a music licensing deal due to the high costs involved, but the licensing deals stalled after Elon Musk's takeover of the company.
Musk's tweets and the enhanced Twitter Blue package were mentioned in the lawsuit, with allegations that Musk encouraged users to pay Twitter to hide infringing material.
The alleged copyright infringement on Twitter primarily involves music videos, live performances, and videos synchronized to copyrighted music.
Other social networks like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat have already made licensing deals, while Twitch, Roblox, and Peloton have settled with the NMPA over music copyright.