Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over “Copycat” Threads App
In a letter obtained by Semafor, Twitter has warned Meta, formerly Facebook, of potential legal action over concerns about its newly launched Threads app. The letter, addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, states that Meta used Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to develop Threads.
According to Alex Spiro, Twitter’s lawyer and partner at the Quinn Emanuel law firm, Meta hired numerous ex-Twitter employees, which is not surprising given the high number of firings following Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. Twitter alleges that some of these former employees still have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and confidential information. It further claims that Meta exploited this situation by assigning these employees to develop a “copycat” app, which Twitter argues is a violation of state and federal laws.
Twitter has threatened legal action, seeking both civil remedies and injunctive relief. The company demands that Meta immediately cease the use of any Twitter trade secrets or highly confidential information. Additionally, Twitter states that Meta is prohibited from crawling or scraping Twitter’s data.
Meta responded to Twitter’s letter through a post on the Threads app. Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, stated that none of the Threads engineering team consists of former Twitter employees, refuting Twitter’s claims. Meta appears unfazed by the threat of legal action, possibly because Twitter has a history of making legal threats. In May, Twitter accused Microsoft of abusing its API through integrations with some of its products.
Threads was launched by Meta on Wednesday night, initially attracting celebrities and brands. Within less than 24 hours of its launch, Threads amassed over 30 million registered users. Internal data viewed by The Verge’s Alex Heath indicates that users have already created over 95 million threads.
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, responded to a post about the letter on Twitter, stating, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.” This further adds to the tension between the two companies.
The potential legal dispute between Twitter and Meta adds another layer to the increasingly competitive landscape of social media platforms. It remains to be seen how this situation will unfold and whether it will impact the future of Threads and its relationship with Twitter.
