Twitter is threatening to file a suit against Meta for launching Thread – a “copycat” social media platform launched by Instagram on Wednesday, Semafor has reported.
In a cease and desist letter sent to Meta, Twitter alleges that the social media behemoth poached its employees to create Thread, which is a typical replica of Twitter.
In the letter sent to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter lawyer, Alex Spiro, accused the company of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
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“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Spiro wrote in a letter obtained exclusively by Semafor. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”
NEWS: Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over "systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation" of Twitter's trade secrets and IP, as well as scraping of Twitter's data, in a cease-and-desist letter sent yesterday to Zuckerberg by Elon's lawyer Alex Spiro. pic.twitter.com/enWhnlYcAt
— X News Daily (@xDaily) July 6, 2023
According to the letter, Meta hired dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”
Spiro also accused Zuckerberg of using former Twitter employees to steal the company’s trade secrets and also assigned those employees to develop “Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.”
Musk acknowledged the development in a tweet on Thursday, saying that “Competition is fine, cheating is not”, in response to the report.
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Following the launch of Thread on Wednesday, thousands of Twitter users have signed up – making the app one of the fastest-growing social media platforms with a record 30 million users in less than a day. Other Twitter rivals like Mastodon, and Bluesky have failed to gain mainstream traction and large user bases over time.
Musk’s threat to sue Meta indicates that Threads is so far, the greatest threat to Twitter. With Meta resources and grit, Threads stands a chance to sweep what is remaining of Twitter’s users and advertisers.
The RIPTwitter hashtag was trending on Twitter following Zuckerberg’s announcement to launch Thread.
Musk’s method of running Twitter has been heavily criticized by both users and advertisers. His decision to cap the number of tweets users can view during the weekend appeared to be the last straw for many. The company said the decision was part of efforts to halt data scraping. But users were not having any of the excuses.
It is not clear if the matter will lead to a legal battle between the two companies. Musk’s decision to make Twitter algorithm open source has been blamed for the development.
Semafor quoted a Meta source saying that Twitter’s accusations are baseless. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” the source said.
Meta is notorious for using copycats to get on the edge of the competition. The company used Instagram Stories to limit Snapchat’s growth, and Reels is currently giving TikTok a run for its money.