\n<\/p>\n
Elon Musk<\/strong>\u2019s Twitter acquisition last fall ushered in a slew<\/a> of alternative platforms, from Post. to Mastodon to Bluesky Social<\/a>, a venture involving Twitter\u2019s cofounder Jack Dorsey<\/strong> himself. None of these sites seem to have really caught on, until now (well, maybe). Meta\u2019s Threads, which launched Wednesday and was reportedly pitched internally<\/a> as essentially a saner Twitter, is already being called a possible \u201cTwitter killer<\/a>.\u201d An offshoot of Instagram, Meta\u2019s text-based app became the most rapidly downloaded app ever shortly after its launch, per The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> As of Friday morning, they were up to 70 million sign-ups, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Needless to say, Twitter is not happy; shortly after seeing its first legitimate challenger, Musk\u2019s company fired off a legal warning. \u201cTwitter 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,\u201d Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro<\/strong> wrote in a Wednesday letter to Zuckerberg, first reported<\/a> by Semafor. \u201cTwitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.\u201d Accusing Meta of \u201csystematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter\u2019s trade secrets and other intellectual property,\u201d Spiro went on to allege that Meta had hired ex-Twitter employees who \u201chad and continue to have access to Twitter\u2019s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.\u201d Meta has soundly denied the allegations. \u201cNo one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee\u2014that\u2019s just not a thing,\u201d Andy Stone,<\/strong> Meta\u2019s communications director, told Semafor.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, tensions between Musk and Zuckerberg are only growing (and yes, this is where we get to the part about these two tech executives threatening to physically fight each other). Musk has publicly accused Meta of playing dirty. \u201cCompetition is fine, cheating is not,\u201d he tweeted<\/a> Thursday. The Twitter owner has previously attacked Zuckerberg\u2019s business record, privately disparaging the fact that his rival got rich off software that Musk apparently finds unremarkable, according to<\/a> The Wall Street Journal.<\/em> More recently, Musk blamed<\/a> Instagram\u2014Meta\u2019s hottest product in the US\u2014for causing mental health problems. News of Meta\u2019s Threads last month was the final straw: Musk responded by challenging Zuckerberg to a literal cage match, and Zuckerberg, a Brazilian jiujitsu<\/a> student, agreed. (At this point, it seems unlikely that a match will happen. Even Musk\u2019s mother stepped in<\/a> to stop her son from fighting. Moreover, Musk tweeted<\/a> Monday that he needs \u201ca lot more training.\u201d)<\/p>\n As for Threads, the microblogging platform, to pose a real and sustained threat to Twitter\u2019s ubiquity, Threads must attract the same politicians, celebrities, and media figures and sustain activity on the site. So far, it has managed to do just that. More than a quarter of all House and Senate members joined the platform within its first two days of existence, per an Axios report<\/a>. While Democrats are far more inclined to join a Twitter rival, given Musk\u2019s right-wing makeover at Twitter, notable Republicans have also ventured onto Threads, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy,<\/strong> House majority leader Steve Scalise,<\/strong> former vice president Mike Pence,<\/strong> as well as several other GOP presidential candidates (no, not Donald Trump<\/strong>). Likewise, a few top aides at Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s White House have joined Threads.<\/p>\n This mixture of Republicans and Democrats could make Threads the first Twitter challenger that can reasonably be viewed as nonpartisan, a key component of Twitter\u2019s pre-Musk success, while rivals, including Post.\u00a0and Mastodon for people on the left and Truth Social and Gettr for people on the right, were adopted or marketed along partisan lines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n