Twitter is considering legal action against Instagram’s parent company Meta over its recently launched app Threads.
In a letter obtained by Semaphore, Twitter accused Meta of unlawfully using its trade secrets and intellectual property. Letter written by Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro claims Meta hired former Twitter employees who had access to confidential information, suggesting they may have used that knowledge to develop the thread .
“We have serious concerns that Meta is engaged in the systematic, willful and illegal misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property,” Spiro said in the letter.
In response to the allegations, Meta spokesman Andy Stone denied the involvement of any former Twitter employees on the Threads team, and said, “There are no former Twitter employees on the Threads engineering team – that doesn’t matter.”
The launch of Threads has intensified the competition between Elon Musk’s Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. Threads, a text-based conversation app, attracted significant attention and garnered millions of sign-ups within the first 24 hours after its release. The app is seen as a possible option for users looking to move away from Twitter, which has faced challenges under Musk’s ownership.
Elon Musk has responded to the Threads launch by sharing his thoughts on Twitter. In a tweet, he retweeted an image comparing the Threads logo to a tapeworm and added the comment, “metaphorically too.”
In another post, he highlighted the importance of fair competition, saying, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Although Meta’s new app has received positive feedback and impressive download numbers, success isn’t guaranteed. Meta has a history of launching standalone apps that were later shut down, and Threads is still in its infancy.
Elon Musk expressed dismay over the launch of the Threads app by Meta, viewing it as an attempt to monopolize the social media space.
Data privacy concerns have also emerged regarding Threads. The app was launched in over 100 countries, but is exclusively unavailable in the European Union due to strict privacy regulations. Some users express objections to Meta’s data collection practices and cite the Digital Markets Act, a law that imposes regulations on Internet companies, as a reason for their reluctance to fully adopt Threads.
This potential legal battle over trade secrets is not unusual in the tech industry. Past cases, such as the dispute between Waymo and Uber, have had significant consequences. The outcome of the ongoing Twitter-meta struggle will have ramifications for both platforms and the wider social media landscape.
