Musk announces suspensions for Twitter accounts pushing 'weaponization' of copyright law

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday announced that the social media platform would amend its copyright guidelines and implement temporary suspensions on accounts aggressively pursuing unreasonable takedown requests.

"Accounts engaging in repeated, egregious weaponization of DMCA on Twitter or encouraging weaponization of DMCA will receive temporary suspensions," Musk wrote. "That said, reasonable media takedown requests are, of course, appropriate and will always be supported."

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an American law enforcing intellectual property rights that digital platforms often cite when removing content that appropriates copyrighted materials. Copyright holders, on the other hand, often report content using their materials to digital platforms to request that they remove it to comply with the DMCA.

Major media companies such as Disney and YouTube are known to rigorously pursue DMCA-related takedowns. This practice has sometimes attracted considerable controversy over supportive creations such as fan art, and stimulated heated discussion about the exact nature of fair use, especially for video content.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.