X accuses music publishers of ‘weaponizing’ DMCA takedowns

X is suing music publishers and their trade group, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), accusing them of attempted coercion in their ongoing battle over licensing, as reported earlier by The Hollywood Reporter. The Elon Musk-owned platform accuses music publishers of colluding with the NMPA to “coerce X into taking licenses to musical works from the industry as a whole, denying X the benefit of competition between music publishers.”

In the antitrust lawsuit filed on Friday, X claims that the NMPA and music publishers “weaponized” the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) with requests to take down allegedly infringing content. The lawsuit claims that in 2021, the NMPA began “bombarding X with takedown notices every single week related to thousands of posts,” to “gain leverage and pressure X” into industrywide licensing deals.

X has had problems with copyright and piracy following Musk’s takeover. In 2023, for example, the entire Super Mario Bros. Movie kept getting posted to X.

This filing is the latest wrinkle in a years-long legal battle between X and the NMPA, which sued X for $250 million in 2023 for “massive” copyright infringement involving more than 1,700 songs.. A judge upheld parts of the still-pending lawsuit in 2024, and a November 2025 filing stated X and the NMPA “have made very substantial progress toward settlement,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

X is asking the court for monetary damages and for the judge to block the NMPA from allegedly forcing X to collectively negotiate with the publishers.