‘Competition is fine, cheating is not’: Elon Musk after Threads launch

Earlier Thursday, news portal Semafor reported that Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta Platforms over its new, text-based app called Threads, citing a letter sent to Facebook parent’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg by Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro.

Alex Spiro, the attorney representing Twitter, accused Meta of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” app, reported AP.

“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 the letter.

In the letter Spiro noted the company’s right to seek civil remedies or injunctive relief. He added that the letter marked a “formal notice” for Meta to preserve documents relevant for a potential dispute between the companies.

Andy Stone, Meta spokesperson, responded to the report, writing, “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing”.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has also not publicly commented on Wednesday’s letter, but seemingly appeared to address Threads’ launch in a Thursday tweet.

“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated,” Yaccarino wrote.

Still, some analysts say Meta’s new app could be a significant headache for Twitter — pointing to the excitement surrounding Threads’ launch and impressive download numbers so far.

The app arrives at a time when many are looking for Twitter alternatives to escape Elon Musk’s raucous oversight of the platform since acquiring it last year for $44 billion.

Updated: 07 Jul 2023, 03:26 AM IST