United News of Bangladesh

In the moment when her world shattered three years ago, Stephanie Mistre found her 15-year-old daughter, Marie, lifeless in the bedroom where she died by suicide. “I went from light to darkness in a fraction of a second,” Mistre said, describing the day in September 2021 that marked the start of her fight against TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app she blames for pushing her daughter toward despair. Delving into her daughter’s phone after her death, Mistre discovered videos promoting suicide methods, tutorials and comments encouraging users to go beyond “mere suicide attempts.” She said TikTok’s algorithm had repeatedly pushed such content to her daughter. “It was brainwashing,” said Mistre, who lives in Cassis, near Marseille, in the south of France. “They normalized depression and self-harm, turning it into a twisted sense of belonging.” Now Mistre and six other families are suing TikTok France, accusing the platform of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to life-threatening material. Out of the seven families, two experienced the loss of a child. Asked about the lawsuit, TikTok said its guidelines forbid any promotion of suicide and that it employs 40,000 trust and safety professionals worldwide — hundreds of which are French-speaking moderators — to remove dangerous posts. The company also said it refers users who search for suicide-related videos to mental health services. Before killing herself, Marie Le Tiec made several videos to explain her decision, citing various difficulties in her life, and quoted a song by the Louisiana-based emo rap group Suicideboys, who are popular on TikTok. Her mother also claims that her daughter was repeatedly bullied and harassed at school and online. In addition to the lawsuit, the 51-year-old mother and her husband have filed a complaint against five of Marie’s classmates and her previous high school. Above all, Mistre blames TikTok, saying that putting the app "in the hands of an empathetic and sensitive teenager who does not know what is real from what is not is like a ticking bomb.” Scientists have not established a clear link between social media and mental health problems or psychological harm, said Grégoire Borst, a professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Paris-Cité University. “It’s very difficult to show clear cause and effect in this area,” Borst said, citing a leading peer-reviewed study that found only 0.4% of the differences in teenagers’ well-being could be attributed to social media use. Read: TikTok-loaded phones listed online for thousands amid app ban Additionally, Borst pointed out that no current studies suggest TikTok is any more harmful than rival apps such as Snapchat, X, Facebook or Instagram. While most teens use social media without significant harm, the real risks, Borst said, lie with those already facing challenges such as bullying or family instability. “When teenagers already feel bad about themselves and spend time exposed to distorted images or harmful social comparisons," it can worsen their mental state, Borst said. Lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion, who represents the seven families suing TikTok, said their case is based on “extensive evidence.” The company "can no longer hide behind the claim that it’s not their responsibility because they don’t create the content,” Boutron-Marmion said. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to trap vulnerable users in cycles of despair for profit and seeks reparations for the families. “Their strategy is insidious,” Mistre said. “They hook children into depressive content to keep them on the platform, turning them into lucrative re-engagement products.” Boutron-Marmion noted that TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, features much stricter content controls for young users. It includes a “youth mode” mandatory for users under 14 that restricts screen time to 40 minutes a day and offers only approved content. “It proves they can moderate content when they choose to,” Boutron-Marmion said. “The absence of these safeguards here is telling.” A report titled “Children and Screens,” commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron in April and to which Borst contributed, concluded that certain algorithmic features should be considered addictive and banned from any app in France. The report also called for restricting social media access for minors under 15 in France. Neither measure has been adopted. TikTok, which faced being shut down in the U.S. until President Donald Trump suspended a ban on it, has also come under scrutiny globally. The U.S. has seen similar legal efforts by parents. One lawsuit in Los Angeles County accuses Meta and its platforms Instagram and Facebook, as well as Snapchat and TikTok, of designing defective products that cause serious injuries. The lawsuit lists three teens who died by suicide. In another complaint, two tribal nations accuse major social media companies, including YouTube owner Alphabet, of contributing to high rates of suicide among Native youths. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents who had lost children while testifying last year in the U.S. Senate. In December, Australia enacted a groundbreaking law banning social media accounts for children under 16. Read more:  Trump pauses US TikTok ban with executive order In France, Boutron-Marmion expects TikTok Limited Technologies, the European Union subsidiary for ByteDance — the Chinese company that owns TikTok — to answer the allegations in the first quarter of 2025. Authorities will later decide whether and when a trial would take place. When contacted by The Associated Press, TikTok said it had not been notified about the French lawsuit, which was filed in November. It could take months for the French justice system to process the complaint and for authorities in Ireland — home to TikTok’s European headquarters — to formally notify the company, Boutron-Marmion said. Instead, a Tiktok spokesperson highlighted company guidelines that prohibit content promoting suicide or self-harm. Critics argue that TikTok’s claims of robust moderation fall short. Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, dismissed TikTok’s assertion that over 98.8% of harmful videos had been flagged and removed between April and June. When asked about the blind spots of their moderation efforts, social media platforms claim that users are able to bypass detection by using ambiguous language or allusions that algorithms struggle to flag, Ahmed said. The term “algospeak” has been coined to describe techniques such as using zebra or armadillo emojis to talk about cutting yourself, or the Swiss flag emoji as an allusion to suicide. Such code words "aren’t particularly sophisticated,” Ahmed said. "The only reason TikTok can’t find them when independent researchers, journalists and others can is because they’re not looking hard enough,” Ahmed said. Ahmed’s organization conducted a study in 2022 simulating the experience of a 13-year-old girl on TikTok. “Within 2.5 minutes, the accounts were served self-harm content,” Ahmed said. “By eight minutes, they saw eating disorder content. On average, every 39 seconds, the algorithm pushed harmful material.” The algorithm “knows that eating disorder and self-harm content is especially addictive” for young girls. For Mistre, the fight is deeply personal. Sitting in her daughter’s room, where she has kept the decor untouched for the last three years, she said parents must know about the dangers of social media. Had she known about the content being sent to her daughter, she never would have allowed her on TikTok, she said. Her voice breaks as she describes Marie as a “sunny, funny” teenager who dreamed of becoming a lawyer. “In memory of Marie, I will fight as long as I have the strength,” she said. “Parents need to know the truth. We must confront these platforms and demand accountability.”

All social media platforms including Facebook will be unblocked within two hours on Wednesday. State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak confirmed the development. Palak shared the update following virtual meeting with representatives from Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, joining from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) building in Dhaka's Agargaon this morning. Earlier on July 18, internet services were disrupted and access to social media platforms were blocked.   Read more: Only Youtube gets back to Palak; Facebook, others have till Wed morning

TikTok will begin labeling content created using artificial intelligence when it's uploaded from certain platforms. TikTok says its efforts are an attempt to combat misinformation from being spread on its social media platform. The announcement came on ABC's “Good Morning America” on Thursday. “Our users and our creators are so excited about AI and what it can do for their creativity and their ability to connect with audiences.” Adam Presser, TikTok’s Head of Operations & Trust and Safety told ABC News. “And at the same time, we want to make sure that people have that ability to understand what fact is and what is fiction.” TikTok's policy in the past has been to encourage users to label content that has been generated or significantly edited by AI. It also requires users to label all AI-generated content where it contains realistic images, audio, and video.

The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest. “Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week. “Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, asked on Instagram, using the acronym for Social Security number. Trump himself posted to his own social platform within hours to ask, “Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???" State election officials soon found themselves forced to respond. They said the user, who pledges to fight, expose and mock “wokeness,” was wrong and had distorted Social Security Administration data. Actual voter registrations during the time period cited were much lower than the numbers being shared online. Stephen Richer, the recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, refuted the claim in multipleX posts while Janet Nelson, the secretary of state in Texas, issued a statement calling it “totally inaccurate." Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users. The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information. The accounts enjoy a massive reach that is boosted by engagement algorithms, by social media companies greatly reducing or eliminating efforts to remove phony or harmful material, and by endorsements from high-profile figures such as Musk. They also can generate substantial financial rewards from X and other platforms by ginning up outrage against Democrats. Many such internet personalities identify as patriotic citizen journalists uncovering real corruption. Yet their demonstrated ability to spread misinformation unchecked while disguising their true motives worries experts with the United States in a presidential election year. They are exploiting a long history of trust in American whistleblowers and anonymous sources, said Samuel Woolley, director of the Propaganda Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. “With these types of accounts, there’s an allure of covertness, there’s this idea that they somehow might know something that other people don’t,” he said. “They’re co-opting the language of genuine whistleblowing or democratically inclined leaking. In fact what they’re doing is antithetical to democracy.” The claim that spread online this past week misused Social Security Administration data tracking routine requests made by states to verify the identity of individuals who registered to vote using the last four digits of their Social Security number. These requests are often made multiple times for the same individual, meaning they do not necessarily correspond one-to-one with people registering to vote. The larger implication is that the cited data represents people who entered the U.S. illegally and are supposedly registering to vote with Social Security numbers they received for work authorization documents. But only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections and illegal voting by those who are not is exceedingly rare because states have processes to prevent it. Accounts that do not disclose the identities of those behind them have thrived online for years, gaining followers for their content on politics, humor, human rights and more. People have used anonymity on social media to avoid persecution by repressive authorities or to speak freely about sensitive experiences. Many left-wing protesters adopted anonymous online identities during the Occupy Wall Street movement of the early 2010s. The meteoric rise of a group of right-wing pseudonymous influencers who act as alternative information sources has been more recent. It's coincided with a decline in public trust in government and media through the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic. These influencers frequently spread misinformation and otherwise misleading content, often in service of the same recurring narratives such as alleged voter fraud, the “woke agenda” or Democrats supposedly encouraging a surge of people through illegal immigration to steal elections or replace whites. They often use similar content and reshare each other's posts. The account that posted the recent misinformation also has spread bogus information about the Israel-Hamas war, sharing a post last fall that falsely claimed to show a Palestinian “crisis actor" pretending to be seriously injured. Since his takeover of Twitter in 2022, Musk has nurtured the rise of these accounts, frequently commenting on their posts and sharing their content. He also has protected their anonymity. In March, X updated its privacy policy to ban people from exposing the identity of an anonymous user. Musk also rewards high engagement with financial payouts. The X user who spread the false information about new voter registrants has racked up more than 2.4 million followers since joining the platform in 2022. The user, in a post last July, reported earning more than $10,000 from X's new creator ad revenue program. X did not respond to a request for comment, which was met with an automated reply. Tech watchdogs said that while it’s critical to maintain spaces for anonymous voices online, they shouldn’t be allowed to spread lies without accountability. “Companies must vigorously enforce terms of service and content policies that promote election integrity and information integrity generally,” said Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. The success of these accounts shows how financially savvy users have deployed the online trolling playbook to their advantage, said Dale Beran, a lecturer at Morgan State University and the author of “It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office.” “The art of trolling is to get the other person enraged," he said. "And we now know getting someone enraged really fuels engagement and gives you followers and so will get you paid. So now it’s sort of a business.” Some pseudonymous accounts on X have used their brands to build loyal audiences on other platforms, from Instagram to the video-sharing platform Rumble and the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. The accounts themselves — and many of their followers — publicly promote their pride in America and its founding documents. It's concerning that many Americans place their trust in these shadowy online sources without thinking critically about who is behind them or how they may want to harm the country, said Kara Alaimo, a communications professor at Farleigh Dickinson University who has written about toxicity on social media. “We know that foreign governments including China and Russia are actively creating social media accounts designed to sow domestic discord because they think weakening our social fabric gives their countries a competitive advantage," she said. "And they’re right.”

Facebook and Instagram users will start seeing labels on AI-generated images that appear on their social media feeds, part of a broader tech industry initiative to sort between what’s real and not. Meta said Tuesday it's working with industry partners on technical standards that will make it easier to identify images and eventually video and audio generated by artificial intelligence tools. What remains to be seen is how well it will work at a time when it's easier than ever to make and distribute AI-generated imagery that can cause harm — from election misinformation to nonconsensual fake nudes of celebrities. “It's kind of a signal that they’re taking seriously the fact that generation of fake content online is an issue for their platforms,” said Gili Vidan, an assistant professor of information science at Cornell University. It could be “quite effective” in flagging a large portion of AI-generated content made with commercial tools, but it won't likely catch everything, she said. Read: Grameenphone launches ‘AppCity,’ Bangladesh's first cross-platform marketplace Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, didn’t specify Tuesday when the labels would appear but said it will be “in the coming months” and in different languages, noting that a “number of important elections are taking place around the world.” “As the difference between human and synthetic content gets blurred, people want to know where the boundary lies,” he said in a blog post. Meta already puts an “Imagined with AI” label on photorealistic images made by its own tool, but most of the AI-generated content flooding its social media services comes from elsewhere. A number of tech industry collaborations, including the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative, have been working to set standards. A push for digital watermarking and labeling of AI-generated content was also part of an executive order that U.S. President Joe Biden signed in October. Clegg said that Meta will be working to label “images from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney, and Shutterstock as they implement their plans for adding metadata to images created by their tools.” Google said last year that AI labels are coming to YouTube and its other platforms. Read: Samsung Electronics Chairman acquitted of financial crimes "In the coming months, we’ll introduce labels that inform viewers when the realistic content they’re seeing is synthetic,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan reiterated in a year-ahead blog post Tuesday. One potential concern for consumers is if tech platforms get more effective at identifying AI-generated content from a set of major commercial providers but miss what's made with other tools, creating a false sense of security. “There’s a lot that would hinge on how this is communicated by platforms to users,” said Cornell's Vidan. “What does this mark mean? With how much confidence should I take it? What is its absence supposed to tell me?”

Meta plans to give Facebook and Instagram users in Europe the option of paying for ad-free versions of the social media platforms as a way to comply with the continent's strict data privacy rules, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The company wants to charge users about 10 euros ($10.50) a month to use Instagram or Facebook without ads on desktop browsers, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the proposal. Adding more accounts would cost 6 euros each. Prices for mobile would be higher, at roughly 13 euros a month, because Meta needs to account for commissions charged by the Apple and Google app stores on in-app payments, the newspaper said. Also read: Canada's government to stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram after Meta says it will block news Meta reportedly is hoping to roll out paid subscriptions in the coming months as a way to comply with European Union data privacy rules that threaten its lucrative business model of showing personalized ads to users. Meta would give users the choice between continuing to use the platforms with ads or paying for the ad-free version, the WSJ said. "Meta believes in the value of free services which are supported by personalized ads," the company said in a statement to The Associated Press. "However, we continue to explore options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements. We have nothing further to share at this time." Also read: Facebook’s importance as source of news sees significant decline in 2023: Reuters Institute Report The EU's top court said in July that Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users — a ruling that jeopardizes the company's ability to make money by tailoring advertisements for individual users based on their online interests and digital activity. It's not clear if EU regulators will sign off on the plan or insist that the company offer cheaper versions. The newspaper said one issue regulators have is whether the proposed fees will be too expensive for most people who don't want to be targeted by ads. Also read: Facebook user data issue: Facebook parent company Meta will pay $725M

Facebook is a crucial platform for businesses with a huge user base. However, there's a lot of content, and it's tough for algorithms to pick the right stuff quickly. Many businesses are competing for space in the news feed, making it hard to reach people naturally. To do well, focusing on attracting visitors is mandatory. Following the tips in this article can help you reach more people on Facebook. Basic Strategies to Increase Facebook's Reach Organically Tailor Your Content to Specific Audiences Recognize the importance of meaningful interactions and adjust your posting approach accordingly. Always consider the specific users your post is targeting. Publish posts that you believe will be genuinely interesting and relevant to your intended audience. Whether or not a post is sponsored, you can target each of your posts on your business page to a specific audience. Control Your Posting Frequency The frequency of your Facebook posts is a crucial factor. Aim to post as often as possible while maintaining quality content. It's essential to keep your Facebook page active to foster growth. Avoid over-posting, as it can become annoying, and don't post so infrequently that your audience forgets about you. Hubspot's research suggests that for pages with fewer than 10,000 fans, engagement per post drops by 50% if you post more than once per day. Consider a guideline of one post per day or up to five posts per week. Read more: How to Prevent Facebook Hacking: Security measures from Mobile, Desktop Encourage Audience Interaction Publish content that sparks conversations among your audience. Facebook's algorithm takes note when a post generates a lot of discussion among a user's friends and may prioritize such posts. Content that people want to share and discuss with their friends holds value. Time Your Posts for Maximum Impact The recency of a post is crucial, as the newest posts appear at the top of users' news feeds. To maximize visibility and engagement, schedule your posts to coincide with your audience's online activity. According to Coschedule, the best times to post are between 1-4 pm, with specific time slots based on each weekday. Keep in mind that these times may vary depending on your followers' behavior patterns. You can use Hootsuite to obtain custom recommendations for the best posting times. Share Longer Videos Facebook's algorithm prioritizes videos based on watch time and completion rates. Focus on creating videos that capture your audience's attention and keep them engaged for longer durations, preferably over three minutes. Additionally, native videos receive a boost in reach. Read more: How to Earn Money from Facebook Leverage Your Top Advocates Facebook prioritizes posts from person to person over those from pages to a person. Encourage your employees to post about your brand, as their content carries more credibility and authority with the algorithm due to their personal connections. Sharing your brand's posts on your personal timeline can also help improve visibility. Avoid Engagement Baiting Steer clear of engagement-baiting tactics, which involve creating posts designed to artificially boost engagement through likes, shares, comments, and other actions. These tactics can result in lower visibility, as Facebook demotes such posts. Examples include asking for reactions, comments, shares, tags, or votes. Read more: How Do Social Media Influencers Make Money?

YouTube has become an efficient platform for sharing ideas, entertaining audiences, and educating viewers on various topics. But creating a successful YouTube video involves more than just pressing the record button. A well-crafted script is the backbone of any compelling video, guiding the creator's message and ensuring a coherent and engaging delivery. Let’s take a look into the process of writing an effective YouTube video script that captivates your audience and keeps them coming back for more. Why is Scriptwriting Necessary to Make an Effective Youtube Video? A quality script can do more than just simplify the content creation process. Here are some reasons why aspiring YouTubers should dedicate time to scriptwriting. Enhanced Content Quality A skillfully crafted script enhances the video's quality by ensuring the content's structure is well-arranged and the message is lucid. With a clear plan in place, content creators can allocate more time to developing top-notch visuals, refining edits, and other aspects of video production, all while being confident in the meticulousness of their content. Elevated Engagement Through a solid script, creators can maintain viewer engagement and interest throughout the video, improving viewer retention rates. By pre-planning the content, creators can guarantee an engaging pace and a presentation style that facilitates effortless comprehension and assimilation of information. Read more: YouTube Explainer Videos: Ways to Make Money While Sharing Knowledge Consistency Amplification A proficient script ensures channel content consistency with a recurring series or thematic approach, resulting in a more devoted and engaged viewership. By pre-meditating content, creators can ensure that messaging and content delivery remain in harmony with past videos within the series or aligned with the overarching theme of the channel. Time-Efficient Approach An effective script streamlines the filming process for creators by offering a comprehensive guide to what needs to be captured and when. This contributes to an efficient filming process and empowers creators to generate high-calibre content promptly. Augmented Professionalism A meticulously composed script bestows a sense of professionalism and refinement upon the video, leading to a more favourable overall impression on viewers. By pre-planning content and presenting it coherently and succinctly, creators can demonstrate their commitment to delivering high-value content, ultimately conveying their dedication to producing content of the highest quality. Read more: How to Protect Your YouTube Channel from Getting Hacked Required Competencies to Be an Efficient Script Writer A path in screenwriting might be your destined route. The realm of screenwriting can offer an exhilarating and rewarding career if you possess a genuine passion for it. Discover the key aptitudes that every aspiring screenwriter should cultivate before making your YouTube Videos: Passion A passion for your craft is not only pivotal for any vocation but finds amplified significance in the realm of prospective screenwriters. It can revel in the enchantment of attracting experiences and narratives. Screenwriting entails more than the mechanics of script composition; it is a study of the art form, entailing an authentic appreciation for its nuances. Persistence Crafting an exceptional screenplay is a formidable undertaking. The screenwriter's path is laden with hurdles such as creative impasses, external discouragement, and the shifting tides of genre trends and concepts. Throughout this journey, a screenwriter must surmount these obstacles, defying the forces that seek to thwart their progress and resolutely pursue their aspirations. A solitary "yes" amid a sea of "no's" can prove transformative. Flexibility The life of a YouTube screenwriter demands adaptability across all facets. The writing process, critiques, troubleshooting – each domain necessitates nimbleness. Challenges like technical constraints, availability of sources of elements, and subject material shifts can lead to script-related exigencies. Read more: YouTube Affiliate Marketing: Tips to build a successful channel Notwithstanding these upheavals, the ultimate objective remains consistent: delivering impeccable content. You can transcend these challenges by persevering, embracing feedback, harnessing your vision, and exercising patience. Cultivating this flexibility is paramount. Knowledge A substantial component of this endeavour is immersing yourself in script reading. By engaging with scripts, you absorb the language of screenwriting, grasp distinct attributes and structures, and enhance your craft. Fully immerse yourself in the realm of screenwriting. Attend workshops and seminars, devour literature, devour podcasts, and engage with video content. Every nugget of insight is invaluable, and its relevance might emerge unexpectedly in the future. Consistency Consistency reigns supreme in the realm of content creation. As a wordsmith, you'll grapple with deadlines and time-sensitive obligations. The temporal canvas might range from ample expanses to brief windows. Regardless, punctuality in submission is non-negotiable. Read more: Best Educational YouTube Channels for Children Numerous techniques and tools, aiding organisation and surmounting creative blocks, await your utilisation as deadlines approach. Nurturing a reputation of dependability is indispensable; hone the skill of preemptively tackling deadlines to prepare for future challenges. Perpetual Writing The process is familiar: a surge of inspiration births a captivating concept, only to encounter an obstacle that halts your progress. Perplexity prevails, leading you to abandon the endeavour. This cycle, though understandable, should not be a reason to cease your efforts. Perfection eludes every initial draft; refinement and repetition are constants. Establishing daily page quotas, like completing five pages each day can help. Interjecting breaks during writing to recharge your mental faculties will also work on your behalf. The next time your creative flow falters, remember that even the most remarkable screenplay you've encountered embarked on its journey as a less-than-stellar initial draft. Read more: How to Increase YouTube subscribers for free

Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half. In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.” “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” he concluded. Ever since he took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal last fall, Musk has tried to reassure advertisers who were concerned about the ouster of top executives, widespread layoffs and a different approach to content moderation. Some high-profile users who had been banned were allowed back on the site. Read: Tecno collaborates with Vogue to capture 'style in motion' at London Fashion Week In April, Musk said most of the advertisers who left had returned and that the company might become cash-flow positive in the second quarter. In May, he hired a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, an NBCUniversal executive with deep ties to the advertising industry. But since then, Twitter has upset some users by imposing new limits on how many tweets they can view in a day, and some users complained that they were locked out of the site. Musk said the restrictions were needed to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data. Read: Skoot-Walton to work on production of high-tech e-bikes Twitter got a new competitor this month when Facebook owner Meta launched a text-focused app, Threads, and gained tens of millions of sign-ups in a few days. Twitter responded by threatening legal action.

Just how similar is Instagram's chatty new app, Threads, to Twitter? In a cease-and-desist letter earlier this week, Twitter threatened legal action against Instagram parent company Meta over the new text-based app Threads, which it called a "copycat." Threads has drawn tens of millions of users since launching as the latest rival to Elon Musk's social media platform. Twitter threatens legal action against Meta over Threads: Report Threads creators pushed back on the accusations, and legal experts note that much is still unknown. For now, "it's sort of a big question mark," Jacob Noti-Victor, an associate professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School who specializes in intellectual property, told The Associated Press. The people starting to explore Threads, however, are already making their own observations. "People are calling it a Twitter clone but I think there are some key product differences," said Alexandra Popken, Twitter's former head of trust and safety operations. One difference, she thinks, will likely be the people who use it. At Threads, "you're essentially taking your audience from Instagram and putting this into a new text-based app, whereas Twitter is a kind of a niche audience for politicians, celebrities and news junkies," she said. Yet even though Threads makers have said they aren't particularly interested in making it a politics forum, it's likely to attract journalists and politicians, among others, looking for a Twitter alternative. What is Threads? All your questions about Meta's new Twitter rival, answered Instagram's CEO, Adam Mosseri, said Threads isn't aiming to replace Twitter. "The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter," he said. Politics and hard news will inevitably show up on Threads, he acknowledged, "but we're not going to do anything to encourage those verticals." In a Wednesday letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Twitter, accused Meta of unlawfully using Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a "copycat" app. In a reply to a tweet about the possibility of legal action against Meta, Musk wrote: "Competition is fine, cheating is not." Meta spokesperson Andy Stone responded in a Threads post Thursday that "no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee." Meta unveils Threads, targeting users looking for an alternative to Twitter From Spiro's letter, which was first obtained by news outlet Semafor on Thursday, Noti-Victor said it's hard to tell what the trade secrets referred to might be. Spiro says ex-Twitter employees "improperly retained" company documents and electronic devices — pointing to ongoing confidentiality obligations. There was no explicit reference, however, to a breach of any binding agreement in the letter, and most noncompete clauses, for example, are prohibited in California. In addition, despite Threads' similarities to Twitter, "just the idea of creating a social media platform involving text (is) certainly not something that would be a trade secret," Noti-Victor added. He is skeptical of intellectual property violations for similar reasons, noting that companies "can't patent something that's obvious" 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 companies in Silicon Valley are constantly making products or services inspired by competitors' versions. Meta is set to take on Twitter with a rival app called Threads "The industry has a storied past of borrowing ideas from each other," said Popken, adding that Threads and other platforms such as Mastodon and Bluesky are "trying to capitalize on what is demand for a suitable, safer alternative to Twitter." Meta has a track record of starting standalone apps that mirror competitors, although many later shut down. Beyond trade secret and intellectual property allegations, Spiro also wrote that Meta is prohibited from "engaging in any crawling or scraping of Twitter's followers or following data." He said the letter marked a "formal notice" for Meta to preserve documents relevant for a potential dispute between the companies. Any letter of this kind should be taken seriously, said Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond's School of Law — but he, too, added that much is still unknown. More specific allegations and documents could come forward if litigation is pursued. Tobias speculated that Twitter's move could be partly about publicity, as well as a strategic response both legally and business-wise. Musk's legal team has made similar moves before, such as a May letter to Microsoft objecting to alleged misuse of Twitter data to train artificial intelligence systems. Among those elevating the clone-or-not question this week was Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who has championed Bluesky, and joked in a tweet: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 7 Twitter clones." For Popken, who now works at content moderation startup WebPurify, what most stands out about Threads so far is how much fun she's having using it. "I see brands like Slim Jim trying to be funny. I see influencers who I follow on Instagram and people who I care about in my life," she said. "There's like this period of time where the bad actors haven't found it yet. It's like this non-toxic, happy corner of the internet." But "make no mistake," she added, those content moderation problems that have plagued other platforms "will certainly strike Threads over time."