Regarding Meta’s quickly expanding rival program Threads, Twitter is considering taking legal action against Meta.
The company behind Threads, which was introduced to millions of people on Wednesday, has positioned it as a “friendly” substitute for Twitter.
Elon Musk of Twitter claimed that “competition is fine, cheating is not,” but Meta refuted this accusation in a legal letter, denying that any ex-Twitter employees were involved in the creation of Threads.
According to Meta, more than 30 million users have downloaded the new app.
According to James Clayton, a technology correspondent for BBC News, Threads has a look and feel that is comparable to Twitter’s. The news stream and the reposting, according to him, were “incredibly familiar.”
Legal Action
Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, charging Meta of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” in order to establish Threads, as originally reported by the news source Semafor.
More specifically, Mr. Spiro said that Meta had hired a large number of ex-Twitter workers who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information” and who ultimately assisted Meta in creating what he called the “copycat” Threads program.
“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,” according to the letter.
“Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice.”
After receiving a copy of the letter, BBC News contacted Twitter and Meta for comments.
In response to a tweet that included the legal letter, Mr. Musk responded that “competition is fine, cheating is not.”
“No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing,” wrote Meta spokesperson Andy Stone in a thread.
A Rivalry
Both Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg have recognized their rivalry over Threads, a connected but independent program that integrates with Instagram.
Zuckerberg broke his Twitter silence after more than 11 years to share a viral meme of two virtually identical Spider-Man figurines pointing at each other in a standoff as it launched in 100 countries.
It wasn’t long before Elon Musk said: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.” This was while the word “Threads” was trending globally on his site.
The network, which previously estimated having roughly 260 million monthly users, is “often imitated,” but it “can never be duplicated,” according to Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino.
Both Meta and Twitter have made big employee reductions this year; Meta said in April that it will eliminate about 10,000 jobs.
Following Mr. Musk’s takeover in October, Twitter laid off as many as 80% of its 7,500 employees in waves of layoffs.