Twitter threatens to sue Meta over new Threads app

Elon Musk’s Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over its newly launched microblogging app Threads, accusing the company of hiring former Twitter employees and using its trade secrets, as reported by TechCrunch.

Meta launched Threads on Android and iOS in more than 100 countries on Thursday, days after Twitter came under criticism again due to its newly announced limits on the number of tweets users can read a day. Threads garnered more than 30 million sign-ups within hours, and more users are joining the platform by simply using their Instagram credentials.

As Threads continues to grow its user base, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the social media company of engaging in ‘’systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.’’

“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,” he wrote in the letter, which was first reported 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.”

Spiro also accused the company of hiring ‘’dozens’’ of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information’’, and assigning those employees to build the Threads app, ‘’in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter’’.

Following the letter, Meta’s Communications Director Andy Stone said in a Threads post that ‘’no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee’’.

Replying to a tweet about the letter, Twitter’s owner Elon Musk said: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.“