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A12 business
Monday 10 July 2023

'Clone' or competitor? Users and

lawyers compare Twitter and Threads

By MATT O'BRIEN and WY-
ATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS
The Associated Press
Just how similar is Insta-
gram's chatty new app,
Threads, to Twitter?
In a cease-and-desist let-
ter earlier this week, Twitter
threatened legal action
against Instagram par-
ent company Meta over
the new text-based app
Threads, which it called a
"copycat."
Threads has drawn tens
of millions of users since This photo, taken in New York on July 5, 2023, show the logo for
launching as the latest rival Meta's new app Threads, right, and that of Twitter.
to Elon Musk's social media Associated Press
platform. forum, it's likely to attract Stone responded in a
Threads creators pushed journalists and politicians, Threads post Thursday that
back on the accusations, among others, looking for "no one on the Threads en-
and legal experts note that a Twitter alternative. gineering team is a former
much is still unknown. For Instagram's CEO, Adam Twitter employee."
now, "it's sort of a big ques- Mosseri, said Threads isn't From Spiro's letter, which
tion mark," Jacob Noti-Vic- aiming to replace Twitter. was first obtained by news
tor, an associate professor "The goal is to create a outlet Semafor on Thurs-
at Yeshiva University's Car- public square for commu- day, Noti-Victor said it's
dozo Law School who spe- nities on Instagram that hard to tell what the trade
cializes in intellectual prop- never really embraced secrets referred to might
erty, told The Associated Twitter and for communi- be.
Press. ties on Twitter (and other Spiro says ex-Twitter em-
The people starting to ex- platforms) that are interest- ployees "improperly re-
plore Threads, however, ed in a less angry place for tained" company docu-
are already making their conversations, but not all of ments and electronic
own observations. Twitter," he said. devices — pointing to on-
"People are calling it a Twit- Politics and hard news going confidentiality obli-
ter clone but I think there will inevitably show up gations. There was no ex-
are some key product dif- on Threads, he acknowl- plicit reference, however,
ferences," said Alexandra edged, "but we're not go- to a breach of any bind-
Popken, Twitter's former ing to do anything to en- ing agreement in the let-
head of trust and safety courage those verticals." ter, and most noncompete
operations. In a Wednesday letter ad- clauses, for example, are
One difference, she thinks, dressed to Meta CEO Mark prohibited in California.
will likely be the people Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, an In addition, despite
who use it. At Threads, attorney representing Twit- Threads' similarities to Twit-
"you're essentially taking ter, accused Meta of un- ter, "just the idea of creat-
your audience from Insta- lawfully using Twitter's trade ing a social media plat-
gram and putting this into secrets and other intellec- form involving text (is) cer-
a new text-based app, tual property by hiring for- tainly not something that
whereas Twitter is a kind of mer Twitter employees to would be a trade secret,"
a niche audience for politi- create a "copycat" app. Noti-Victor added.
cians, celebrities and news In a reply to a tweet about He is skeptical of intellec-
junkies," she said. the possibility of legal ac- tual property violations for
Yet even though Threads tion against Meta, Musk similar reasons, noting that
makers have said they wrote: "Competition is fine, companies "can't patent
aren't particularly interest- cheating is not." something that's obvious"
ed in making it a politics Meta spokesperson Andy or copyright a general
idea for a social media
platform. Copyright can
protect source code and
the text of a website, but
Noti-Victor said he doesn't
see that reproduced in
Threads.
Experts add that compa-
nies in Silicon Valley are
constantly making prod-
ucts or services inspired by
competitors' versions.q