On Thursday, Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, expressed his criticism of Meta’s new Threads application on Twitter. In a tweet, Jack stated, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 7 Twitter clones,” as he retweeted a post by Andy Allen, an entrepreneur and software engineer.
Andy Allen, the founder of the Not Boring app, recently shared an image on social media comparing various social media platforms side by side. Accompanying the image, Andy captioned it by expressing his sentiment: “Feels like we missed an opportunity to reinvent social. Can you tell them apart?”
He highlighted the striking similarities in operation, user interface, and design among these platforms, suggesting a lack of innovation in the social media landscape.
The image shared by Andy Allen highlights the remarkable similarities in the interface of various platforms, including Threads, Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky (a decentralized social network initiated by Dorsey), and Not Boring. It underscores the striking resemblance in their user interfaces, demonstrating a lack of distinctiveness and innovation across these platforms.
The Threads App, introduced by Meta as a direct competitor to Twitter, has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 50 million signups.
Twitter users hit back at Jack Dorsey
In response to a user named Racer’s comment on Dorsey’s tweet, pointing out that Dorsey himself created two apps, Twitter and Bluesky, Dorsey clarified by tweeting, “No. Bluesky and nostr are protocols that Twitter can build upon. Would remove some constraints and burden. Not competitive.”
https://twitter.com/0xRacerAlt/status/1677011114343956480?s=20
Elon Musk, the current owner of Twitter and former CEO, playfully responded to Dorsey’s tweet with a laughing emoji, without providing any specific text message.
Another user named Dan Go expressed his disappointment by stating that it is unfortunate to witness some of the most brilliant minds in the world dedicating their efforts to finding ways to captivate people within the realm of social media.
It’s unfortunate that we have some of the smartest people in the world trying to figure out how to get people to get sucked into social media.
— Dan Go (@FitFounder) July 6, 2023
Elon Musk threatens to sue Meta over Threads
A heated competition is unfolding in the social media sphere, as Twitter has accused Meta of releasing a rival app that infringes on its intellectual property. The app in question, Threads, enables users to share text messages and photos on a timeline resembling Twitter’s format. Zuckerberg claims that Threads garnered more than 30 million users shortly after its launch on Wednesday.
On the same day, Alex Spiro, the lawyer representing Twitter, took action by sending a cease-and-desist letter to Meta. The letter accused Meta of hiring numerous ex-Twitter employees and utilizing their knowledge of Twitter’s trade secrets and confidential information to swiftly develop Threads within a few months. Spiro also cautioned Meta against unauthorized crawling or scraping of Twitter’s data, an alleged violation that Meta is said to be prohibited from engaging in.
In response to the cease-and-desist letter regarding Threads, Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Stone, issued a statement clarifying that none of the individuals on the Threads engineering team are former Twitter employees.
Stone emphasized that Threads is powered by Instagram, distancing it from any alleged misuse of Twitter’s trade secrets. Additionally, Stone subtly suggested that Twitter’s reaction might be driven by a sense of unease over Threads’ burgeoning success.
Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal last year, expressed his openness to competition but condemned any form of cheating in a recent tweet. He emphasized his intention to diligently uphold his intellectual property rights and prevent Meta from utilizing any of Twitter’s confidential information or trade secrets.
