X updates terms to ban data scraping and crawling without consent

The change aims to prevent the unauthorized use of its data for training AI models.

The updated terms, which took effect on September 29, state that "crawling or scraping the Services in any form, for any purpose without our prior written consent is expressly prohibited." The previous version of the terms allowed crawling in accordance with robots.txt.

Additionally, X has modified its robots.txt file to disallow crawlers from accessing certain types of data, including likes and retweets related to specific posts, as well as account likes, media, and photos.

Elon Musk has repeatedly spoken out against companies using Twitter/X data to train AI models. In April, he threatened to sue Microsoft for allegedly using Twitter data without permission to train AI models. In July, Musk filed a lawsuit against unidentified companies.

Earlier this month, X updated its privacy policy to mention the potential use of public data, including tweets, for training AI models. The privacy policy also includes clauses on the collection of biometric data, education and employment history information from users.