By Kristina Ukrainets
The social media giant launched this new app with perfect timing, after Elon Musk stated that he would be putting a temporary limiter on tweets users can view on Twitter. What’s seen like a direct attack to try and transform this platform into the world of Instagram, there is already threats of lawsuits heading Zuckerberg’s way.
Formulated to be a text-based twitter rival, Meta’s new release has already gained 30 million users in a couple of hours, where it took its rivals years to do, if not never. Before the rise of Threads, Meta Platforms had a market cap of $733.05 Billion, and it will only soar higher due to its increase in popularity. This new move will make Meta monumentally more investable, and you’d have to spend a hefty amount of time on some crypto blackjack games to even come close to getting your hands on a share.
Statistics show that it took Twitter over three years to reach the number of users that Threads managed on its first day, though Musk is still basking in the fact that Twitter still has 10-times the active user comparison. With this huge growth in a day, it is obvious that the 10-times active user difference will be closed in no time, and Musk’s gloating will come to a halt.
Since Musk’s overly priced purchase of Twitter late 2022, there has been a spike in disappointed users due to the changes that he has made to the interface. Cost-based areas, purchasing verification, and limiters are to name a few, and consumers made it obvious that they weren’t happy with the difference. Welcome Instagram Threads. With Instagram’s already flourishing 2-billion user database getting notifications to join, there is worry being sparked at Twitter HQ.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Legal Battle
According to Variety, Elon Musk’s Twitter has already begun the threats to sue Meta over Threads, and they have even gone down the route of calling it the ‘Copycat App’. On July 5th, a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer standing for Twitter was addressed to Meta CEO Zuckerberg. Stating that the company has “serious concern” that Meta “has engaged in systematic, wilful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”, later detailing that they will be demanding Meta to take immediate steps into removing any trade secrets that may have been stolen.
This letter was reported by Semafor, and it also states that “Meta is expressly prohibited from engaging in any crawling or scraping of Twitter’s followers or follower data… Scraping any Twitter services is expressly prohibited for any reason without Twitter’s prior consent.” Which means that the hunt for a copycat blame is in full swing.
In a tweet which received 7.7 million views, Elon Musk tweeted “Competition is Fine, cheating is not” which cements the fact that he heavily believes that Meta’s Threads is a true copy of what he is trying to build.
What’s the difference in these two platforms?
Twitter is renowned for its use of the hashtag; however, Threads does not use or have a feature that allows this. Along with this, Twitter is also known for the search bar, where you can find specific text or phrases, while Threads also does not include this factor.
The same with Instagram, Threads users can still go on to share up to 10 images if you wish, though Twitter has a limiter on this at 4 images. Threads requires an Instagram account, which is fitting considering the well-known social media giants are also owners of Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp. To have a Twitter account, all you need is an email address or phone number, where you aren’t intrinsically linked to any other social media. This is why Twitter has a plethora of bots, and a severe issue when it comes to trolling; Instagram on the other side, has a harsher level of verification, for good of course.
One major factor that differs from all these social entities, is the fact that Threads does not support GIF’s or direct messaging, and at present, does not feature any advertisements. This has already been discussed, in the fact that it will possibly arrive in the same format that Instagram does, but in comparison, Twitter is covered in advertisements and feed limiters.
There has been news of this new Meta launch since 2021, where its description was evidently different but it held the same format of a text-based app. Meta will always be evolving, and there are new launches within the social media world at all times, however this one is the quickest growing out there to date.
Will the world of Threads continue to flourish and take the crown from Elon’s Twitter, or will he succeed in the threats that he’s handing out at Zuckerberg – Though we don’t know the answer, at the very least, we’re sure he’ll be tweeting about his next steps anyway.
(GP/SR)
