No matter what some people say, competition is healthy for the market and consumers. For the longest time now, despite all the other social media sites, there has been nothing like Twitter. The blue bird’s signature message board-style of social media has a simplistic appeal to the large masses that allows users to consume short bursts of information in quick succession. However, being the only social media site that has the capacity to dominate this space, Twitter has experienced unprecedented growth as people don’t have any alternative… until now.
When they weren’t struggling with fashion week in the Metaverse or building AIs, Zuckerberg and his team were actually hard at work on a new social media platform that is said to be Twitter’s kryptonite. The news has travelled far and wide, as Elon Musk is reportedly contemplating suing Meta for intellectual property theft. Here’s what you need to know about Zuckerberg’s “Twitter Killer”, called “Threads”.
Twitter has been going through a rough patch, especially since Musk has virtually ruined the platform’s user experience for everyone. For decades, people have been clamouring for a new Twitter, or at least something that would go toe-to-toe with it. That is why Meta’s Threads is currently being seen as a godsend made by the minds behind Facebook and Twitter. Despite popping up seemingly overnight, Threads, according to Zuckerberg, received 10 million user sign-ups in the first seven hours.
Fundamentally speaking, Threads is a text version of Instagram, sharing the same aesthetic choices as its sister app with a 500-character limit, but you can still share links, multiple photos, and up to five minutes of videos. Many were quick to treat the new space like Twitter due to the long-standing titan losing its foothold in social media – so much so that Twitter CEO Musk threatened to sue Threads for violating Twitter’s “intellectual property rights”.
The letter accuses Meta of taking “trade secrets and other intellectual property,” as Meta has been hiring former Twitter employees over the past year. Through these stolen “secrets,” Meta has made a “copycat” that specifically targets Twitter. Though it may seem baseless, the letter has some merit for specifically targeting Twitter, as the platform recently limited the number of posts a user can read per day. Furthermore, add the fact that Threads was released ahead of its intended launch date, and Musk has reason to suspect it to be more than a coincidence. However, before you jump ship, here are a few key differences between Threads and Twitter that you need to know:
Threads strictly prohibits pornography. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you, but many view this as a good thing, as Twitter is flooded with incredible amounts of porn. This has been rather concerning for the decade-old titan, as they allow children as young as 13 to create an account and be exposed to this.
Threads and Instagram are linked (whether you like it or not). As mentioned earlier, Threads has a similar aesthetic to Instagram, but their connection isn’t just skin deep. Meta mentioned in a “supplemental privacy policy” for Threads that “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.” Many claim this function to be a massive oversight, but it might be intentional so that users may second-guess their decision to delete their account.
App that was rushed out the door. Believe it or not, Threads was virtually announced overnight. This can be for numerous reasons, as mentioned earlier, but as a result, major functions found on Twitter don’t currently work on Threads. The first and most glaring issue: according to early-adopter users, the app is extremely buggy and requires immediate patching. Furthermore, this is strictly a mobile app, and a PC version is said to be available only at a later date.
You can’t set Threads to “view only” posts from accounts you follow, and you’re only allowed to search posts and not other accounts. However, one issue that has users concerned the most is its learning algorithm, a bot that keeps track of your user experience for ads, something Zuckerberg went to a court hearing for.
As mentioned earlier, competition is healthy for everyone, as it widens the options for consumers to choose from and motivates companies to improve and one-up the competition. So here’s hoping that Meta’s Threads is here to stay; who knows, maybe this is the second wind Zuckerberg and his company are looking for.
Source: Semafor, Variety, Trusted Reviews, Meta, Wikimedia Commons
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