'Clone' or competitor? Users and lawyers compare Twitter and Threads

Another time sink from the lizard brain of Zuckerberg. I'll pass. Wake me for the cage match.

Musk wrote: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Musk. Buddy.

You made the Twitter code for algorithms open source. Your lawsuit is dead on arrival.

The accusation seems overly wide and without actual details at this moment, as if the lawyers were instructed to claim something without having any evidence yet of something illegal taking place. Unless twitter is sure of finding something this could backfire spectacularly.

You made the Twitter code for algorithms open source. Your lawsuit is dead on arrival.

It's not that easy. First, we don't know about what Musk is actually talking about, and it's probable that he is talking about code and "trade secrets" that are not open source.

For example, the only thing we do know about is the alleged data scraping, which if true could very well be in violation of Twitter terms of use.

Second, open source doesn't mean you can use the code without restrictions. The code you talk about is actually being released under an AGPL license, wich means that if Threads is using that code, any change they did to the code, they also need to release as an Open source project, or they are violating the terms of use.

@Luis

Fair points. Guess we will have to see how it plays out then.

As a human, billionaires fighting makes me happy. The more they fight, the merrier. Spend it all on the lawyers!

On a business level, I find it very interesting. Musk has run his company to the ground in the past year. He took the bread and butter of twitter, and decided they needed to scrap that and replace it with the liver-and-onions of right-wing freedumb of speech.

Then suddenly a better restaurant opened up in the town, adjacent to a restaurant with a huge client base, that sells bread and butter. And explicitly keeps offal off their menu. I wonder where the townspeople are going to eat...

Things do not bode well for Musk and Twitter. I just watched the movie Blackberry. We'll see a "Twitter" movie in a decade or so, that will be much along the same lines.

No lawsuit is necessary, since Threads will never get any users - except internet marketers and "influencers" who want to be there first, just in case. If people want a little walled garden overseen by Zuckerberg and various governments' "security services", Threads is the place though. Boasting about downloads is meaningless - of course Facebook can prompt people to download. Usage is another story.

My prediction is it will be quietly abandoned a couple of years down the line.

Google Circles, anyone?

No lawsuit is necessary, since Threads will never get any users - except internet marketers and "influencers" who want to be there first, just in case. If people want a little walled garden overseen by Zuckerberg and various governments' "security services", Threads is the place though.

Of course with the alternative being the liver-and-onions of Freedumb on Twitter, people will choose your boring alternative.

Google Circles, anyone?

Possibly, yes. But Google was up against a rock solid and rapidly expanding facebook when it made its play. it stood little chance.

Threads is up against Musk, who seems to still be angry at being forced to buy twitter and not particularly bothered about making it appealing. He's got rockets and cars on his mind.

I think I still have a Myspace account.

Google Circles, anyone?

This only shows you aren't very good at business. One of the key factors in the success or failure of a venture is the market circumstance at launch. Twitter offers the liver-and-onions of right-wing extremist freedumb of speech, whereas threads offers the bread and butter of moderation of extremism. Seeing as the overwhelming number of people in the world AREN'T far-right extremists looking for freedumb of speech, bread and butter looks a lot more appealing than liver and onions.

If Threads had launched two or three years ago, it may have done no better than Google Circles.

But the market is ripe for a replacement to Twitter right now. Most people want to leave a buggy platform brimming with Freedumb, but no viable alternative existed until Threads showed up.