Twitter threatens lawsuit against Meta over Threads
It turns out that a dispute between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg might not be fought in a cage but in a courtroom.
Hours after Meta launched its new social media platform, a Twitter competitor called subjectsIn 2017, CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a letter from an attorney representing Twitter threatening the company with legal action.
The Two Page letter(opens in a new tab)received from semaphore(opens in a new tab)accuses Meta of hiring former Twitter employees to extract “trade secrets” and “highly confidential information” to create what Twitter calls a “copycat” app.
Accessibility is not a priority when starting threads
“Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms is engaged in a systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of trade secrets and other intellectual property of Twitter,” read the opening statement of the letter sent by Twitter attorney Alex Spiro.
Twitter further alleges that Meta’s hired employees “improperly stored Twitter documents and electronic devices” while working at Meta.
The letter also prohibits Meta from scraping Twitter data, such as Twitter users’ follower information.
Twitter is demanding that Meta stop using the alleged Twitter “trade secrets” in the letter and is threatening legal action.
The tweet may have been deleted
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In response to a user’s tweet about the letter, Twitter owner Elon Musk responded answered(opens in a new tab)“Competition is okay, cheating is not.”
Some users were quick to point out Musk’s tweet in November following a wave of Twitter layoffs.
The tweet may have been deleted
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“I want to apologize for firing these geniuses,” Musk said Answer(opens in a new tab) to a tweet referring to the criticism of the recently laid off employees. “Your immense talent will no doubt be of great use elsewhere.”
Twitter is now claiming that some of those employees actually took their talent elsewhere, namely to Meta, and is threatening to sue them.
However, Meta has already denied Twitter’s allegations.
“Nobody on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.” Posted(opens in a new tab) Meta Communications Director Andy Stone.
In less than 24 hours, Threads has already gained more than 30 million users thanks to its tight integration with Instagram. The Meta’s own app is by far the biggest competitor Twitter has faced to date.
