From cage fight to page fight: Twitter threatens to sue Meta after Threads app launch
- Reference: 1688681169
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/07/06/twitter_threatens_to_sue_meta/
- Source link:
Meta [1]launched Threads on Wednesday for iOS and Android, describing it as "a new app, built by the Instagram team, for sharing text updates and joining public conversations." Threads is [2]not available in Europe at the moment because it doesn't comply with EU data privacy laws.
For those who can use it, you need an Instagram account to log in; it looks a lot like and works like Twitter; it is filled with people saying it looks like Twitter; and it wants access to nearly all your phone's data.
[3]
Threads arrives at a time of turmoil for Twitter, buffeted by [4]mercurial management , [5]dwindling ad sales , [6]lawsuits , and layoffs.
[7]
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The leaders of Twitter and Meta, billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg respectively, have toyed with the idea of [9]a cage fight . The more likely scenario appears to be a page fight, with each wielding legal documents.
In [10]a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg obtained [11]by Semafor , Spiro said Twitter is concerned that Meta has misappropriated its trade secrets and other intellectual property.
[12]
The letter claims Meta over the past year has hired dozens of former Twitter employees – a group that happens to be fairly sizable after Elon Musk last October acquired Twitter and proceeded to lay off roughly 3,700 employees or [13]about half the company's workforce.
Anyway, the letter contends that these former employees had access to confidential company information, "owe ongoing obligations to Twitter", and "improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices."
"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 letter says.
[14]
Failing to mention that social media apps routinely [15]copy each other's features , the letter goes on to demand that Meta stop using the unidentified Twitter trade secrets. If that doesn't happen, Twitter may seek to enforce its rights through legal action.
[16]Meta's data-hungry Threads skips over EU but lands in Britain
[17]Oh, great. Yet another tech billionaire thinks he can get microblogging right
[18]Twitter rate-limits itself into a weekend of chaos
[19]Mummy and Daddy Musk think Elon's cage fight against Zuck is a terrible idea
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone took the opportunity to respond in [20]a Threads post . "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that's just not a thing," he said.
The letter further advises Meta not to scrape Twitter's data, which per Twitter's Terms of Service is only permitted in accordance with the site's robots.txt file. Specifically, the file, used to tell cooperative bots how to behave, forbids crawling Twitter followers or following data.
While a robots.txt file may have some relevance in certain legal scenarios, it is not considered a legally binding contract. Terms of Service can be legally binding if properly accepted.
Twitter's concern about web scraping recently led the biz to [21]impose limits on the number of tweets Twitter users could read and post. That effort served to [22]boost traffic at BlueSky , another would-be Twitter rival that's currently invitation-only.
In May, Twitter [23]sent a similar letter to Microsoft, alleging that the Windows biz has been violating Twitter's developer agreement and misusing Twitter data. A month earlier, Elon Musk [24]accused Microsoft of illegally using Twitter data to train AI models.
Linda Yaccarino, Twitter's recently installed CEO, in response to Threads taking off – 30 million sign-ups already – [25]said earlier: "We're often imitated, but the Twitter community can never be duplicated."
Twitter has not yet filed a complaint against Microsoft or Meta. ®
Get our [26]Tech Resources
[1] https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/introducing-threads-new-app-text-sharing/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/05/threads_comes_to_uk/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZKeN5dPBNF@b4leqd6S@-gAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/31/twitter_value_decline/
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/technology/twitter-ad-sales-musk.html
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/05/twitter_arbitrations_lawsuit/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZKeN5dPBNF@b4leqd6S@-gAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZKeN5dPBNF@b4leqd6S@-gAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/22/mark_zuckerberg_vs_elon_musk/
[10] https://twitter.com/tcanham459/status/1677025367167586305
[11] https://www.semafor.com/article/07/06/2023/twitter-is-threatening-to-sue-meta-over-threads
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZKeN5dPBNF@b4leqd6S@-gAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.reuters.com/legal/twitter-again-accused-legal-violations-during-mass-layoffs-2023-04-04/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZKeN5dPBNF@b4leqd6S@-gAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.themediamoment.com/analysis/social-media-copycat-culture
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/05/threads_comes_to_uk/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/05/instagram_threads_debuts_twitter_competition/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/twitter_rate_limits_itself_into/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/29/musk_parents_worried_fight/
[20] https://www.threads.net/t/CuXeGudAEXr/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/twitter_rate_limits_itself_into/
[22] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/03/users-flock-to-twitter-competitor-bluesky-after-elon-musk-imposes-rate-limits.html
[23] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/technology/twitter-microsoft-misusing-data.html
[24] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1648784955655192577
[25] https://twitter.com/lindayacc/status/1676965566597464065
[26] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Surely..
Surely this is the perfect opportunity for Zuck to respond with a poop emoji?
::sigh:: unbloodybelievable. If you have the resources to support the back end - which zuck does - how difficult would it be to clone Twitter? Not very, I'd guess - no need to suck secrets out of former employees, though I imagine there would be no shortage of disgruntled former twits lining up for the pleasure of doing so.
It's called competition. You make a service, and if it's good enough, people use it. If it's not, someone makes a better version and people use that instead. The idea is that you make the most popular toy, or you fail. When it turns out you're not the most popular, you do not threaten legal action against those who are, you improve your product or you abandon it. Such is life.
Speaking of popular, I see that threads is claiming to have acquired 30 million users already, according to various news outlets. The BBC, at least, made reference to privacy concerns, and I'm sure at least some other reports will have touched on that too. Doesn't seem to have dampened enthusiasm very much, does it?
I should think that most of them will be existing Instagram users, so they're accustomed to having their data hoovered up and don't have a problem with it. It would be interesting to know how many new users have signed up with Instagram just so they can play with threads.
Certainly, I won't be doing that. I don't have an Instagram account, I don't want one, and I'm not about to create one just to see what the fuss is about.
This zuck / musk feud looks like it might have some legs, though. Popcorn required, I think.
Twitter clones have existed for almost as long Twitter have existed but Twitter choice to hugely limit the blue Twit Twit and make it log in only is what is currently behind Threads being so darn popular overnight.
Whoever wins ...
We lose.
*snore* After the 2016 election Facebook fuckery,..
More Meta? Hah! Nope.
Twitter's biggest Trade Secret
Is that it has no IP. It's basically a text messaging platform my kid could write in an afternoon, and scale it on AWS the next day.
Space Karen Vs The Zuckerborg
Can they both lose.
Please?
'English' is a very rich language.
There is a very good word in the English language which economically describes this action of Musk's: " risible ". Risible is defined as any action or position taken which is "...so lacking in quality or usefulness that it deserves to be laughed at...". Other definitions include 'absurd', 'stupid', 'silly', 'bird-brained' (how absolutely apt )...
Mr Musk now has a long history of demonstrating that this single word can be applied, a priori , to any course of action he might pursue.
Re: 'English' is a very rich language.
Would serve as a good middle name for the Elongated one - Elon Risible Musk. Works for me, anyway.
Ah, yes,... small violins, crocodile tears, long toes, ...
Instead of a cage fight, can we please just dig a very deep hole, dump them all in there, fill it nicely again, plant a forest on top and forget about it all?