International
oi-Deepika S
Twitter is considering legal action against Meta over its fast-growing rival app Threads, claiming that they have created a copycat platform and hired former Twitter staff to do so.
Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro accused Meta of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a copycat app.
Since launching Threads Wednesday night, Meta’s new app has collected tens of millions of sign ups.
The app, which was created by the company’s Instagram team, 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 USD 44 billion.
Responding to the allegations, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee that’s just not a thing.
While Spiro said that Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights and 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.
“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,” Alex Spiro wrote in the letter.
Elon Musk has responded to the Threads launch by sharing his thoughts on Twitter.
“Competition is fine, cheating is not, tweeted Musk.
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
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.
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