Title: Twitter Takes Legal Action Against Meta’s Threads App, Alleging Trade Secret Misappropriation
In a battle for dominance in the social media realm, Twitter has announced its intention to sue Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over its newly launched Threads app, which is touted as a potential rival to Twitter. The microblogging platform, which boasts over 30 million subscribers in less than 24 hours, accuses Meta of resorting to underhanded tactics by hiring former Twitter employees to develop a copycat software.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk addressed the issue on Twitter, stating, Competition is fine, cheating is not, confirming the impending lawsuit. In a letter written by Twitter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, serious concerns are raised about Meta’s alleged systematic and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property. Spiro claims that Meta was aware that its employees had access to confidential information improperly retained from their previous employment at Twitter and deliberately assigned them the task of developing Threads to expedite the process.
Furthermore, Twitter accuses Meta of illegally scraping its follower data to train Threads’ AI model. Musk has recently limited the number of daily tweets users can view, reportedly as a measure to prevent companies from implementing similar practices.
The letter from Spiro serves as a formal notice for Meta to preserve any relevant documents in preparation for a potential legal dispute. Twitter intends to fully enforce its intellectual property rights and demands that Meta immediately cease using any confidential information belonging to Twitter.
Responding swiftly, Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, denied the allegations, stating, No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing. However, this is not the first instance in which Mark Zuckerberg has faced accusations of repackaging ideas from other platforms into Meta’s offerings. Instagram Stories, inspired by Snapchat, and Instagram Reels, serving as Meta’s response to the popular short-video format introduced by Chinese social media platform TikTok, have all drawn criticism.
While the question of whether Meta violated US copyright rules with its Threads app remains to be seen, the matter is likely to be settled in court. What is certain is that the clash between Zuckerberg and Musk has intensified, and only time will tell who will deliver the final blow in this high-profile showdown.
