Elon Musk Accuses Substack Of 'Massive Theft' In Attempt To Compete With Twitter

The drama between Elon Musk and Substack intensified as the Twitter CEO accused the subscription newsletter platform of stealing the microblogging site’s data.

What Happened: Musk on Monday said Substack was temporarily categorized by Twitter as “unsafe” after it was “discovered that they were illegally downloading vast amounts of data to pre-populate their Twitter clone.”

See Also: Elon Musk Now The Most Followed Person On Twitter: Too Late To Say Sorry, Thanks Obama!

After a Twitter user asked Musk whether it seemed that Substack was “trying to compete with Twitter,” he replied affirmatively and emphasized that it had done so through “massive theft” of the site’s data.

Why It Matters: The feud between Twitter and Substack ignited when the latter announced the launch of its own social media platform called Substack Notes. Following the announcement, Twitter began restricting tweets containing Substack links, making it difficult for Substack users to promote their work on the microblogging site.

Tiff On Sidelines: On Saturday, journalist Matt Taibbi, who had previously been a vocal supporter of Musk and had contributed to the “Twitter Files,” criticized the microblogging site, stating that he would rather use Substack’s Notes than Twitter. He mentioned that Twitter had restricted content containing Substack URLs over a dispute about the new Notes platform. However, he did not specify the source of that information.

Last week, Musk claimed that Matt Taibbi was a Substack employee, which Taibbi denied. Musk posted (and later deleted) DMs with Taibbi, in which the latter explained that he was one of the first “Substack Pro” writers, receiving an upfront payment for a year and giving Substack 85% of his subscription revenue, as per The Verge.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Elon Musk’s Prankster Streak Continues As Twitter Loses ‘W’ On HQ Signboard