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"Threads", Facebook's rival to Twitter, sees 30 million sign-ups on launch day

Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey among the joiners

Updated -- Jul 07 2023 11:19 AM

미디어1 (media@koreatimes.net)
Jul 07 2023 10:55 AM

Twitter threatens legal action over "intellectual property infringement"

Facebook's newly launched social networking service (SNS), Threads, a competitor to Twitter, surpassed 30 million users on its launch day. High-profile individuals including Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and television host Oprah Winfrey, have joined, creating a warm reception in the early stages. Twitter has threatened legal action, alleging that Threads has infringed its intellectual property.

Facebook's parent company Meta's newly launched social networking service (SNS), 'Threads', ranks first in the Apple App Store's free apps.

On July 6th (local time), Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (Facebook's parent company), announced that Threads had crossed the 30 million user mark. This was just 16 hours after its launch. As of this day, Threads is ranked first in the Apple App Store's free apps.

Threads allows users to share real-time news and converse based on text, with up to 500 characters per post. Users can attach up to 5 photos or up to 5 minutes of video footage. Built on the Instagram platform, if you have an Instagram account, you can log into Threads without a separate registration process. However, there is no Direct Message (DM) feature for person-to-person messaging, and no PC web version is available, meaning it can only be accessed through the mobile app.

Several high-profile Twitter users have also promptly set up Threads accounts. Gates opened his Threads account on the same day, saying he's "excited to dive into the Threads app." His follower count already surpasses 62.9 million. Television host Ellen DeGeneres (75.4 million Twitter followers), Oprah Winfrey (42.2 million), and singer Jennifer Lopez (44.9 million) have also created Threads accounts.

Twitter, the target of Threads, has established a legal response policy. According to the American online media Semaphore, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Twitter, sent a letter to Zuckerberg after the launch of Threads, stating that "Meta has participated in the systematic, intentional, and illegal theft of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property," and that "Twitter will strictly enforce its rights to its intellectual property."