Currently used on more than 80 college campuses, the anonymous social media platform known as Fizz has filed a lawsuit against Sidechat. Fizz alleges that Sidechat engaged in unfair competition and several unethical practices. These accusations include attempting to obstruct Fizz’s launches, spreading untrue information about Fizz’s involvement with hackers, trademark infringement, filing untrue spam reports against Fizz on Instagram, and obtaining information about Fizz’s launch tactics under false pretenses. Furthermore, Fizz claims that Sidechat paid students to uninstall the Fizz app.
On October 6, 2023, Flower Ave was named as the defendant in this lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Court. The person who owns Sidechat. In addition to asking for a jury trial, Flower Ave. is also being sued for damages and an injunction. ‘s interference with and misuse of the Fizz trademark. Although Sidechat has been relatively quiet in the media, it has come to light that ex-Snap engineers Sebastian Gil and Chamal Samaranayake are connected to Flower Ave.
According to Fizz’s filing, Sidechat appears to have intensified its competitive strategies as Fizz gained popularity on college campuses. For instance, Flower Ave. was already in existence when Fizz debuted at Colgate University in January 2023. make a nearby rival station. A Flower Avenue. False claims that Fizz had hackers and would compromise student data were chanted by the representative; Fizz refutes these claims. Last year, Fizz did acknowledge a security flaw, which it promptly fixed. Fizz further claims that Flower Ave. obtained private information about Fizz’s launch tactics using deceptive methods. Sheldon Chang, the co-founder of Flower Ave. to find out Fizz’s launch plans, pretended to be a Northwestern University student. Screenshots of these communications, which are included in the court filing, show that Chang’s real name was accidentally used in a conversation with Fizz’s COO.
Fizz additionally asserts Flower Ave. ‘s marketing campaigns spread false information while violating its trademark. By using its ambassadors to flag Fizz’s account as spam, Sidechat is accused of orchestrating campaigns to have Fizz banned from Instagram. In the course of Fizz’s UC Berkeley launch, this was successful in getting Fizz blocked on Instagram. Fizz learned of Flower Ave. when a member of Sidechat’s ambassador group shared the messages with Fizz, attempting to obstruct its launches. Also according to Fizz, Flower Ave. paid students $5 each to remove the Fizz application, citing a Yale News article. Fizz tried to talk things over with Flower Ave before taking legal action. I sent cease-and-desist letters to the company’s attorneys on numerous occasions, but I never got a meaningful response. Teddy Solomon, Ashton Cofer, and CEO Rakesh Mathur founded Fizz, which just received an additional $25 million in Series B funding. By year’s end, the company wants to have a presence in 250 schools. Meanwhile, users who objected to the changes made to the social network voiced their displeasure at Sidechat’s acquisition of YikYak.