The battle between social media giants Twitter and Meta has escalated, with Twitter considering legal action against Meta over its rapidly growing rival app, Threads.
Launched just a few days ago, Threads has already attracted over 50 million users, according to Meta.
The impact of Threads is already being felt by Elon Musk’s Twitter, as the social media platform reportedly sent a legal warning letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg through Twitter’s lawyer, Alex Spirt.
This move indicates that Twitter perceives Threads as a formidable competitor and a potential threat to its market dominance.
Threads, described as a “friendly” alternative to Twitter by Meta executives, bears a striking resemblance to the popular microblogging platform.
The app’s news feed and reposting features feel incredibly familiar to Twitter users, noted BBC News technology reporter, James Clayton.
The legal dispute arose after Twitter attorney Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing Meta of unlawfully misappropriating Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to develop the Threads app.
Spiro alleged that Meta hired numerous former Twitter employees who had access to highly confidential information, enabling Meta to create what he referred to as a “copycat” app.
In response to the legal letter, Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, expressed his stance on competition, stating, “competition is fine, cheating is not,” on Twitter.
However, Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone denied the allegations, stating that no member of the Threads engineering team has ever been employed by Twitter.
The rivalry between Meta and Twitter over Threads has been acknowledged by both Zuckerberg and Musk.
Upon the app’s launch in 100 countries, Zuckerberg broke his silence on Twitter, posting a popular meme featuring two Spider-Man figures pointing at each other, symbolizing a stand-off.
In response, Musk tweeted, “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”
While the legal battle ensues, Threads continues to gain traction globally, with users embracing its unique features. The app allows posts of up to 500 characters, surpassing Twitter’s limit of 280.
Additionally, Threads supports longer videos, up to 5 minutes in duration, compared to Twitter’s 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
Both platforms enable the sharing of links, photos, and the deletion of posts. However, Twitter offers direct messaging, displays trending stories, and utilizes hashtags, features that Threads currently lacks.
Verification on Threads is available but as a paid service, unlike Twitter, which offers verification along with longer posts, videos, and an editing function.
The outcome of this legal dispute remains uncertain, but the competition between Meta and Twitter continues to intensify.
With millions of users flocking to Threads, it is clear that the battle for dominance in the social media landscape is far from over.