Social media giant Twitter has reportedly issued a threat to sue Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, over its newly launched Threads app. Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the company of “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
The letter from Spiro outlines Twitter’s serious concerns regarding Meta’s alleged use of confidential information belonging to Twitter. It also demands that Meta immediately ceases using any Twitter trade secrets or highly confidential information. Twitter intends to enforce its intellectual property rights and take legal action to protect its interests.
Spiro’s letter further accuses Meta of hiring former Twitter employees who may have had access to Twitter’s trade secrets and highly confidential information. However, a report by Semafor, published on Thursday, states that none of the employees on the Threads engineering team have a history of working at Twitter, according to Meta spokesperson Andy Stone’s response in a Threads post.
In response to the news, Twitter owner Elon Musk commented on Twitter, saying, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.” Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 2022 has led to increased competition from platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky. While Threads bears a striking resemblance to Twitter in terms of user interface, it does not currently support keyword searches or direct messages.
It remains unclear how the legal dispute between Twitter and Meta will unfold. At the time of reporting, Spiro had not responded to Reuters’ requests for comment. As the battle for dominance in the social media landscape intensifies, intellectual property rights and trade secrets become crucial points of contention, with both companies striving to protect their interests and stake their claims in the highly competitive market.
