By
Chimamanda U. Martha
June 21st, 2024
Twitter got its latest shock as Meta unveiled Threads, which amassed millions of users within hours of launch.
Twitter has issued a letter to Meta over its new Threads app, which looks very similar to the blue-bird app. Meta launched Instagram Threads, a text-based messaging app that allows people to use their Instagram handles and follow the same accounts. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the debut of the Twitter-like app on Wednesday at a time millions of users are looking to delete Twitter. This is a result of the latest changes that limit users’ views to specific numbers of tweets daily.
Already, Twitter’s rivals like Bluesky and Mastodon have started seeing massive increases in their user base. As a matter of fact, Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky experienced “record-high traffic” on the same day Twitter announced the tweet view limit. On the other hand, Mastodon’s creator and CEO Eugen Rochko confirmed that the platform’s active user base went up by at least 110,000. A study by CasinoAlpha revealed that online searches for “delete Twitter account” soared. The search jumped 292% in the US and 131% globally on the 1st of July compared to the past week. In addition, how to delete Twitter accounts also became a common online search, rising by 230% in the US and 152% worldwide on the same day.
Twitter Issues Warnings to Meta over Threads App
Twitter got its latest shock as Meta unveiled Threads, which amassed millions of users within hours of launch. The app was downloaded more than 30 million times in 16 hours. Mark Zuckerberg revealed that over two million people downloaded it within two hours of release. Instagram’s Thread became the most rapidly downloaded as people sought alternatives to Twitter. Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro, wrote a letter to Meta, accusing the technology company of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.
The attorney wrote that Meta has consistently and intentionally employed former Twitter employees. He added that the Facebook parent company is aware that the workers have access to Twitter’s confidential information, including its trade secrets. Spiro wrote in the letter:
“With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat “Threads” app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.”
The Twitter legal representative demands that Meta stop using Twitter trade secrets or other confidential details. In addition, Spiro issued a warning to Meta, noting that the company is forbidden from “crawling or scraping” followers or following data belonging to Twitter.
Meanwhile, Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg made his first tweet in 11 years, and it seems like a shade to Twitter.