The new social media platform is almost identical to Twitter.
QUICK FACTS:
- Elon Musk’s Twitter sent a cease and desist letter to Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg, threatening to take legal action due to alleged intellectual property theft.
- The incident involves the recent launch of Meta’s new social media platform “Threads.”
- According to Fox Business, Threads “allows users to make posts that are up to 500 characters long and share that are up to five minutes long. Users can also post links, photos and videos, which are typical uses for social media apps.”
- The social media platform also “recommends content from other users and allows turning on notifications for specific users, both are also features on Twitter.”
- The cease and desist letter was delivered by Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro, and accuses Meta of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
- “Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees,” the letter says. “Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter; that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter; and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.”
- The letter also calls Threads a “copycat” app to Twitter.
- “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” the letter adds.
- “Please consider this letter a formal notice that Meta must preserve any documents that could be relevant to a dispute between Twitter, Meta, and/or former Twitter employees who now work for Meta,” the letter concludes. “That includes, but is not limited to, all documents related to the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of these former Twitter employees, the development of Meta’s competing Threads app, and any communications between these former Twitter employees and any agent, representative, or employee or Meta.”
THREADS’ CENSORSHIP:
- Users of the platform have already called out censorship tactics.
- Conservative Rogan O’Handley tweeted, “FoxNews showing how Zuck’s new app ‘Threads’ is already censoring me & other conservatives on day 1,” adding, “This is the warning that pops up when you try to follow me there.” He shared an image of a warning displayed when one looks to follow his account.
- The same warning was shown for Donald Trump Jr.’s account.
- Another conservative individual tweeted, “That was quick.”
BACKGROUND:
- Meta has recently been accused of violating children’s privacy rules, leading the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to propose new restrictions against the Facebook parent company.
- The FTC accused Meta of violating the FTC Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by misrepresenting the features of its Messenger Kids app between 2017 and 2019.
- While Meta claimed children could only communicate with parent-approved contacts on the app, the agency suggested there were occasions when children interacted with unapproved contacts.
- “Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises. The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures,” said the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection director Samuel Levine.
