Is Elon Musk's Twitter "Zucked" & Will The Entertainment Community Buy New "Threads"?
Both Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Have Become Industry Pariahs, So What Happens Now?
July 4th sparked more than national soul-searching following a trifecta of disturbing 6-3 Supreme Court decisions. The holiday and its aftermath also sparked the latest media-tech battle royale amongst tech giants and the once-admired, but now more frequently reviled, moguls behind them. Just like George Washington’s soldiers steeled themselves across the Delaware River (it wasn’t the Potomac) under cover of darkness, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg crew stealthily crossed dangerous Elon Musk Twitter waters in the wee hours of July 5th to launch their own broadside attack in the form of Threads. You already know the rest. Threads is essentially a Musk-less form of Twitter. Virtually identical. But without Twitter’s increasing baggage and bad aftertaste.
So what does this all mean for the creative community and the world of media and entertainment? Well, we know for one thing that virtually all creators and players in the entertainment and media ecosystem have used Twitter for years to build their audiences, tell their stories and promote their wares. But that has been increasingly difficult for many of us due to toxic messages increasingly peddled by an increasingly angry populace and an increasingly erratic and confounding CEO.
I too have toyed with leaving Twitter several times, but never quite pulled the plug. Call it habit. Call it dependence. Now Zuckerberg, no angel himself in the eyes of many due to Facebook’s and Instagram’s well-documented social harm, has come to break it.
Threads promises a kinder, gentler form of Twitter. That seems to be its fundamental selling point, and that may be enough for many in the creative community to at least try (and then maybe “buy”). After all, it’s so easy to do. For all Instagram users, which means virtually all artists, just flip the switch and you’re on. And once you’re on, you’re hooked. Literally. It’s like the Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!
If you do (try to leave), no Instagram for you! The Soup Nazi takes away your membership into that equally addictive club, jettisoning all of those Instagram followers that you worked so hard to build in the first place.
Diabolical, absolutely! But would you expect anything else from the mind of Zuck? Kinder, gentler indeed!
And that’s the point. Meta/Facebook/Instagram (whatever you want to call it) brings a massive weapon into the Twitter battle that previous combatants like fast-evaporating Mastodan or The Donald’s hilariously ironically named Truth Social would die for – its billions of Instagram users. So while others had virtually no chance to take a bite out of Musk, Zuckerberg’s Threads already counts a massive 100+ million user base – and it’s been only 1 one week!
It’s certainly no mystery, then, that purported libertarian Musk now cries “Foul!” and threatens intervention by the courts. He has sicced his teams of high-priced lawyers against Threads and everything it represents. But unless Twitter can demonstrate that key members on the Threads team stole trade secrets en masse or broke non-competition agreements (which aren’t enforceable anyway, especially when he laid off 80% of employees), Musk’s transparently desperate legal battle will go out with a whisper-like Tweet. It’s not exactly like Twitter’s basic functionality isn’t obvious.
Zuckerberg’s Alfred E. Neuman “What, me worry?” stance (bonus points for those who understand that reference) is backed up by the fact that Meta’s “theft in plain sight” strategy has worked time and time again. Remember the genesis of Instagram’s so-called “new” product Stories after Snapchat Stories had already achieved massive success? Instagram’s then-CEO Kevin Systrom famously answered “Absolutely!” when asked whether he had copied Snapchat. “They deserve all the credit,” he openly and unapologetically conceded at the time. Meta’s most recent example of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” prior to Threads, is TikTok wannabe Reels, which reportedly is doing rather well, thank you.
Meanwhile, Twitter reportedly has lost two-thirds (2/3) of its value since Musk paid $44 billion to take it over. Advertisers have left in droves. Ad revenues are expected to drop 28% this year and the entertainment community is beginning to cut the cord as well. Hate speech and conspiracy theories are not exactly where it’s at. All of this means that Musk undoubtedly will double down on extremism, courting the crazies in the hopes of some kind of relevance in a world no longer enamored by his Tony Stark impression. And through it all, he will pound his chest in the name of “free speech,” while whining about (and deleting) any speech hurled at him. In the immortal words of John Lennon, the Iron Man has become “The Egg Man.”
So while Zuck may not be the greatest alternative, at least Threads promises content moderation to keep things civil. This at least gives hope to the creative and entertainment community – not to mention the advertisers that support it - for a new social media world order that focuses on the art itself, rather than ugly commentary that frequently attacks it.
Too bad it took the social empire-building Mark Zuckerberg to be the one to do it. It’s not exactly out of a sense of post-Fourth of July patriotism. So either take seriously the new adage, “threader beware!” - or simply put your phone down and go outside to hear some real tweets.
Great column Peter!