Twitter is mulling over whether or not to take legal action against Meta regarding the latter’s rapidly expanding competitor app, Threads.
Threads, which was released to millions of users on Wednesday, is a platform that is comparable to Twitter. The leaders of Meta have marketed Threads as a “friendly” alternative to Twitter.
Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, has stated that “competition is fine, cheating is not.” Nonetheless, Meta has refuted charges made in a legal letter claiming former Twitter employees were involved in the creation of Threads.
Twitter threatens legal action over Threads app
According to Meta, there have been more than 30 million people who have registered for the new app.
James Clayton, a technology reporter for BBC News, pointed out that the appearance and navigation of Threads are comparable to those of Twitter. He described the news feed and the reposting as “extremely familiar” in his statement.
On Wednesday, an attorney for Twitter named Alex Spiro wrote a letter to the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, in which he accused Meta of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” in order to establish Threads. This development was originally reported by the news outlet Semafor.
To be more specific, Mr. Spiro asserted that Meta had employed dozens of former Twitter workers who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information,” which ultimately assisted Meta in developing what he referred to as the “copycat” Threads programme.
According to the letter, Twitter plans to vigorously pursue its intellectual property rights and asks that Meta take immediate action to stop exploiting any Twitter trade secrets or other highly sensitive material. Twitter also demands that Meta stop using any other highly confidential information.
“Twitter reserves all of its rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice.”
BBC News has obtained a copy of the letter and has contacted both Meta and Twitter to inquire about their perspectives on the matter.
In response to a tweet that made reference to the legal letter, Mr. Musk said, “Competition is fine; cheating is not,” highlighting the distinction between the two.
A spokesperson for Meta named Andy Stone stated on Threads that “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee; that’s just not a thing.”
Both Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg have acknowledged the competition that exists around Threads, an app that is connected to Instagram but can also be used independently.
Mr. Zuckerberg broke his silence on Twitter after more than 11 years and posted a widely popular image of two virtually identical Spider-Man figures pointing at one another, implying a standoff. This occurred at the same time that it launched in one hundred countries.
In a short time after that, while the word “Threads” was trending globally on his platform, Mr. Musk stated: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”