Elon Musk attends the America First Policy Institute Gala at Mar-a-Lago on November 14, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
X’s new terms of service took effect on November 15, causing some users to leave Elon Musk’s Weibo platform.
The new terms include broad permissions that require users to allow the company to use their data to train X’s artificial intelligence model, while also requiring users to bear losses of up to $15,000 if they overuse the platform.
The terms prompted some long-time users of the service, both celebrities and ordinary people, to post that they were moving their content to other platforms.
Actress Gabrielle Union said: “With the recent and upcoming TOS changes, and the return of volatile numbers, I find myself at a crossroads, facing a crisis that I can no longer fully support. direction. Posted on X On the same day that the new terms came into effect, she also announced that she would be leaving the platform.
“I’m going to start closing my Twitter account,” said one user named @mplsFietser. in the post. “The changes to the terms of service were the final nail in the coffin for me.”
It’s unclear how many users have left X because of the company’s new terms of service, but since early November, many social media users have flocking to the blue skya new Weibo company, originated from Twitter, the predecessor of X. Thanks to Musk and his support for President-elect Trump.
Bluesky’s U.S. mobile app downloads have surged 651% since early November, according to Sensor Tower estimates. During the same period, X and Yuan Threads grew by 20% and 42% respectively.
X and Threads have a much larger monthly user base. Although Musk explain X had 600 million monthly users in May, and market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates X had 318 million monthly users as of October. That same month, Meta said Threads were almost 275 million Monthly Users. blue sky told CNBC On Thursday, the total number of users for the week reached 21 million.
Here are some noteworthy changes in the new version of X Terms of Service And how they compare to competitors Bluesky and Threads.
Artificial Intelligence Training
X has come under scrutiny for its new terms, which state that any content on the service can be used royalty-free to train the company’s large-scale language models for artificial intelligence, including its Grok chatbot.
“You agree that this license includes our rights to (i) provide, promote and improve the Services, including, for example, the use and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models (whether generative or otherwise),” X’s terms say .
Additionally, any “user interactions, inputs and results” shared with Grok can be used for what it calls “training and fine-tuning purposes,” according to Grok. Glock part X of applications and websites. However, this specific feature can be turned off manually.
X’s terms do not clarify whether users’ private messages can be used to train its AI model, The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Part of X’s terms of service agreement reads: “You should only provide content that you are comfortable sharing with others.”
While X’s new terms may be broad, Meta’s policies are not that different.
According to the company, the maker of Threads uses “information shared on Meta products and services” to obtain its training data Privacy Center. This includes “posts or photos and their captions.” There is also no direct way for users outside the EU to opt out of Meta’s AI training. According to its privacy center, Meta will “retain training data for as long as we need it, on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that AI models run correctly, securely, and efficiently.”
Per Meta’s policy, private messages with friends or family are not used to train the AI unless one of the users in the chat chooses to share with the model, which can include Meta AI and AI Studio.
Bluesky has seen a surge in user growth since Election Day, but it hasn’t done any generative AI training.
“We do not use any of your content to train generative artificial intelligence and have no intention of doing so,” Bluesky said in a statement. postal This was also confirmed to CNBC on its platform on Friday.
liquidated damages
Another unusual aspect of X’s new clause is its “liquidated damages” clause. The terms state that users will be liable for $15,000 in damages if they request, view or access more than 1 million posts (including replies, videos, images and other content) in any 24-hour period.
While most individual users won’t easily reach that threshold, the provision worries some, including several researchers. They do their work by analyzing large numbers of public posts from services like X.
Alex Abdo, director of litigation at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, said in an October statement that X’s new terms of service were “troubling moves that the company should address.” twist”.
“The public relies on journalists and researchers to understand whether and how these platforms shape public discourse, influence our elections, and distort our relationships,” Abdo wrote. “One impact of X Corp.’s new terms of service will be on our most Kill this research when you need to.”
Neither Threads nor Bluesky have liquidated damages clauses similar to X.
Meta and X did not respond to requests for comment.
watch: Bluesky CEO: Our platform is ‘very different’ from any other platform in social media
