Operation Bluebird Wants To Relaunch 'Twitter' For a New Social Network (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0180357951
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/10/2245217/operation-bluebird-wants-to-relaunch-twitter-for-a-new-social-network
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/report/841994/operation-bluebird-twitter-trademarks-petition
> If successful, two leaders of the group tell Ars, Operation Bluebird would launch a social network under the name [3]Twitter.new , possibly as early as late next year. (Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting users to reserve handles.)
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> Michael Peroff, an Illinois attorney and founder of Operation Bluebird, said that in the intervening years, more Twitter-like social media networks have sprung up or gained traction -- like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. But none have the scale or brand recognition that Twitter did prior to Musk's takeover. "There certainly are alternatives," Peroff said. "I don't know that any of them at this point in time are at the scale that would make a difference in the national conversation, whereas a new Twitter really could."
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> Similarly, Peroff's business partner, Stephen Coates, an attorney who formerly served as Twitter's general counsel, said that Operation Bluebird aims to recreate some of the magic that Twitter once had. "I remember some time ago, I've had celebrities react to my content on Twitter during the Super Bowl or events," he told Ars. "And we want that experience to come back, that whole town square, where we are all meshed in there."
"Mere 'token use' won't be enough to reserve the mark," said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law professor and expert in trademark law. "Or [X] could defend if it can show that it plans to go back to using Twitter. Consumers obviously still know the brand name. It seems weird to think someone else could grab the name when consumers still associate it with the ex-social media site of that name. But that's what the law says."
[1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26364751-ttabvue-92090266-can-1/
[2] https://www.theverge.com/report/841994/operation-bluebird-twitter-trademarks-petition
[3] http://twitter.new/
All for it. (Score:2, Informative)
It would just be funny, and that's apparently good enough reason in Musk's view.
His Nazi bar will always be Xitter to me.
It's not about the platform (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with all of these platforms is not what what they're called or what they look like, or even how they function for the most part. The so-called "magic" is gone because these services are flooded with inauthentic content and behaviors. Everything is either an advertisement, propaganda, or influencer/AI slop. The signal-to-noise ratio is too low, which drives away genuine contributors and stops new people from joining and gaining critical mass.
The current state of social media is a reflection of the inability of its users to simultaneously discern what is inauthentic behavior and to free themselves of its effects. If you ask a reasonable person if they actively desire being lied to and manipulated for financial gain, they would say no; but when such deception is packaged in a tantalizing form, they find that not only can they not resist, they don't WANT to resist. Like an addict, they want and embrace the deception, to the point where they get angry at anyone who dares to pull back the curtain. The result is an abundance of weaponized and optimized inauthentic content that is being used to manipulate and monetize.
So no, bringing back the "Twitter" name and functionality is not going to do anything, because even before it was made into the hellscape that is called X, it was its own special cesspool.
Re:It's not about the platform (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think it's really about any of this. This smells to me like a pump and dump scheme. Get investors thinking this idea is hot shit because it's based on a well-established brand, and then make off with the money before anyone realizes the world didn't really need yet another microblogging service.
Publicity stunt: if they launch, it will be as Blu (Score:3)
This smells of a publicity stunt. If they launch, it will be as Bluebird.
Anyway we have Bluesky which has some interesting users. Mastodon is just too much work to find and follow interesting people. Like or not, X is where the legacy crowd still is.
Poor choice. (Score:4, Informative)
> “Many users continue to refer to X as ‘Twitter’ and posts on X as ‘tweets,’ which demonstrates continued association and strengthens the case for residual goodwill,” [Alexandra Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University School of Law] says. She points to a 2020 case where a party attempted to register “Aunt Jemima” for breakfast foods, but was rejected “based on a likelihood of confusion” with Quaker Oats’ Aunt Jemima marks, even though the company had announced earlier that year that it was discontinuing the name and logo.
Beyond this, X has the resources to keep Operation Bluebird in court longer than Operation Bluebird can afford legal representation.
Use it or lose it. (Score:3)
That is the way with trademarks. X management has been very clear about stopping to use the name Twitter;
which means they won't use it anymore, therefore, they have no business continuing to claim a trademark.
That said the artists who drew the Twitter icon still get the copyright to their Logo and art assets, so another company shouldn't be able to just start using those. They will need to have to have their own art created.
If Elon really cared about the Twitter mark it would be, or would have been extremely easy; to keep a service Live using the mark.
Such as a Testbed website for X, for example, or an extra service to still be marketed under the Twitter name.. so called "Token use" wouldn't be sufficient, But you only need to have one actual service still using the branding to prevent it from being "abandoned". You can have a limited service with 100 customers, and still have the rights to your trademark. So If Elon/Twitter/X cares about this in the slightest; they should be able to easily block this proceeding. And you just need to resume use of it within 3 years to avoid it being abandoned under US law. So it's odd for them to petition the trademark office so early.. X can apply a new use of the mark within any schedule they want before that date. The attempt to usurp their IP would easily be blocked if X still cares in the slightest.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
> So are they going to bring back the leftist censorship of conservative speech?
That's probably the primary reason for this effort.
Bluesky (Score:2)
They're talking about Bluesky.
why not just launch as "BlueBird" (Score:1)
They have a name, use that, no legal problems needed.
Re: (Score:2)
There is zero chance that they're going to get the rights to twitter. This is probably just a publicity stunt to get their dumb platform more known.
Let's drain the swamp (Score:3)
Let's drain the swamp and then refill it with fresh sewage.
Let's be honest (Score:2)
AI could vibe code up a twitter clone prototype in about 90 seconds. This is NOT an achievement
Re: (Score:2)
A college freshman could do it in a few hours
Re: (Score:2)
> Even if they manage to convince some corrupt patent official to steal the patent, X will sue them to death, and they'll win.
Not reading the summary: Task completed successfully.
There is nothing relating to patents in this story. Terms being used in product names have to be actively used in a product. You can't just call dibs on a word and then not do anything with it. That includes terms you used in the past. Otherwise we would eventually run out of practical names for products due to past use in history and "Trademark Trolls" who register everything in the dictionary and sit on it -- the result will be product names that look
The richest guy in the world will (Score:2)
launch you to Mars one way without a helmet if you fuck with his IP
The "Magic of the Twitter Brand" (Score:2)
Was that it was authentic, that they had moderators that would weed out BS. They would ban the President if he incited violence. They were decent. If the goal is to bring that back, then count me in.
Say 'me too' or perish (Score:4, Insightful)
Translation: No-one can compete with the Twitter (now X) market-share because of legacy users but we plan to cheat by re-using their former name, logo and trademark.
As always, the big question is: What can BlueBird offer that is different to Mastodon and BlueSky? What's their market USP? They have to obey the same censorship laws and (eventually) age-restriction laws. They'll be manipulated by the same bots and disinformation networks as Twitter, unless their subscriber's down-vote the propaganda. The only advantage, is a 'guaranteed' user base (via brand recognition) allows them to monetize their product quickly. Since X (formerly Twitter) has market share, they're depending on those legacy users to change to BlueBird for no real benefit.
Re: (Score:3)
The old Twitter is dead. Almost everyone left. If you're still there, it's because you want to see what Elon posts, or your job requires it.
The big issue is social media as a whole is dying. No one uses Facebook anymore. Everyone left Twitter when Elon took over. There's nothing inherently wrong with Mastodon or Blue Sky. People are just tired of social media and don't want to start over.
It's just one last desperate try to revive the glory days of social media, hoping that people will be more fond of it if
Before Musk (Score:2)
Twitter did a much better job with the bots. It did have a tough time because you can't algorithmically police right wing extremism without having it go after American Republican politicians. So right we extremism had to be manually policed. In other words racism and Nazis and whatnot. Musk solution to that problem was to just let the racists and the Nazis take over.
Now ordinarily that would be the company would rapidly go out of business because of lost users. But musk has been pumping money into it,