Twitter CEO Elon Musk has dubbed Meta a “copycat” in one of his recent remarks for intending to release a specialized social media programme similar to the micro-blogging platform.
It began when the website Daily Loud for music news published the statement, “Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is researching plans to build a rival to Twitter.”
On that, a user inquired: “But why? I’ll come up with a substitute since everyone loves Facebook and me so much, much like when people are furious with Elon Musk.”
Elon Musk commented on this exchange by saying, “Copy Cat.”
On Elon Musk’s post, several users commented.
A user stated, “People will undoubtedly be clamouring to join yet another Meta platform where “independent fact checkers” stifle debate and content moderators remove memes. Have fun!”
Another person said, “Because Facebook is so ‘excellent’ at what they do, they should start creating rockets and electric automobiles as well.”
Recently, it was revealed that Meta is creating a specific social media programme allowing users to make text-based updates that resemble Twitter.
There is no specific release date because the product is in its early phases. Yet before the app is released, legal and regulatory teams have already started looking into any privacy issues it could raise.
As per media reports, the standalone text-based content app will support ActivityPub, the decentralised social networking protocol powering Twitter rival Mastodon and other federated apps.
The app, code named ‘P92’, will be Instagram-branded and will allow users to access the app through their Instagram credentials. The product plans to use Instagram data for purposes of analytics, product improvement and ranking on the new platform.
“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” said a statement from Meta on the project.
The new Meta platform will allow interoperation with other platforms including Mastodon, a decentralized social media portal that runs slightly similarly to Twitter. This would give users the ability to broadcast posts on other networks.
Other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube also don’t allow such interoperation.
After Elon Musk assumed control of the microblogging network, several competing systems, including Mastodon, Post, news, and T2, have started or gained popularity.
With the debut of his Twitter alternative, “Bluesky,” earlier in March 2023, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey entered the social media fray again.
Suffering from outages, layoffs and an exodus of advertisers, Twitter’s operations have been compromised to the extent that it is not in a situation to protect its users from trolling and disinformation campaigns.
As per BBC reports, tools to protect Twitter users from online hate are becoming difficult to maintain, as the layoffs, which resulted in the micro-blogging platform’s staff strength coming down from over 7500 to 2000, have affected the social media platform’s content safety, moderation and policy teams hard.
“Hate is now thriving under Elon Musk’s leadership, with trolls emboldened, harassment intensifying and a spike in accounts following misogynistic and abusive profiles,” the BBC report noted.
Harassment campaigns aimed at curbing freedom of expression, and foreign influence operations, once removed daily from the platform, are now going “undetected”, it observed further.
The United States Federal Trade Commission has too launched a probe into Twitter, while demanding the social media company submit all correspondence with Elon Musk, as well as detailed data on the recent job cuts.
The Washington Post has reported that the regulatory body is worried that these layoffs could negatively affect Twitter’s capability to safeguard consumers’ information.