In federal court in the US state of Tennessee, 17 music publishers have launched a lawsuit against social media giant Twitter.
They stated that by allowing users to upload music without a license, Twitter is committing thousands of acts of piracy.
According to the complaint, “numerous infringing copies of musical compositions” are being used on Twitter to increase user interaction.
Members of the National Music Publishers’ Association, including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, and Universal Music Publishing Group, are seeking more than $250 million in damages for alleged infringement of over 1,700 copyrights.
According to the complaint, the long-standing breach has gotten worse after Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October because other major sites like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube have legal music licenses from the publishers.