Twitter Threatening to Sue Threads for Using Its Trade Secrets

By
Zhi Hao
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Twitter Vs Threads: Legal Action Might Take Place

Unless you’re an absolute relic with the social media intelligence of a caveman’s, you would have caught wind of the newest social media platform to hit the world:

Threads.

Built by Instagram as a supposedly “friendly” alternative to Twitter, Threads has already garnered more than 30 million sign-ups, despite being released just yesterday.

Image: threads.net

Having tried it myself, I gotta say that Threads is uncannily similar to Twitter, so much so that I was wondering whether there was some plagiarism at play:

A notion that Twitter has grabbed hold of.

Twitter Threatening to Sue Threads for Using Its Trade Secrets

Twitter is officially considering legal action, and it dates back to the very day Threads was launched.

On 5 July 2023 (in the US, which is 6 July in Singapore), Twitter Attorney Alex Spiro reportedly issued a letter to Mark Zuckerberg himself, and it was certainly not one with cupid connotations.

In the letter, Mr Spiro accused Meta of abusing Twitter’s trade secrets.

By getting ex-Twitter employees with the know-how and relevant confidential information, the letter alleged, Meta was able to create the ultimate copycat app.

Mr Spiro demanded that Meta cease its utilisation of apparent secrets and confidential information with immediate effect, or run the risk of paying civil remedies and injunctive relief.

Twitter owner Elon Musk has also since added his two cents, stating that “competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Meanwhile, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone has spoken from his side of the ring, posting that contrary to Twitter’s beliefs, Threads has no former Twitter employee on its line-up.

Is Threads Really All That Similar to Twitter?

At first glance, yes. At second glance? Yes.

Threads is essentially a text-based conversation app, much in the same vein as Twitter. In terms of newsfeed, reposting, dynamics and layout, they could easily be twins. Even the name Threads is a direct reference to the blue bird, as the term “threads” is used on Twitter as a series of connected tweets.

Image: Google Play Store

To Meta’s credit, however, they haven’t been discreet about it. They have, after all, created Threads with the sole intention of being Twitter’s rival.

Threads isn’t quite done yet, either. Functions such as hashtags, direct messages and ads might be added in due time.

At the risk of alienating Elon Musk, here’s a link to use Threads if you’re curious about it. But hold your horses; do note that you cannot delete your Threads profile unless you delete your Instagram profile, too. You can read more about that here.

The Downfall of Twitter?

Ever since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, things have been really… exciting.

There was the massive retrenchment, for starters. And then there was the subscription hoo-hah sometime back that made Twitter users rage.

For the unaware, Elon Musk had made it such that you have to pay a monthly subscription to view more tweets.

Unverified users can only view up to 600, while verified users can view up to 6,000.

For the record, you need to pay around S$11 for a web-based monthly subscription, and S$15 for an iOS monthly subscription.

Suffice to say; users were fed up and started boycotting the platform, with tweets such as “RIP Twitter” trending. Some also fled to Twitter-like platforms such as Bluesky and Mastodon.

After the intense backlash, Musk announced that tweet view limits will soon be increased to 1,000 for unverified users and 10,000 for verified users.

With Threads’ arrival, however, Musk’s rectification may prove a tad too late for redemption.

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]