Twitter is reportedly considering pressing legal action against Meta following the runaway launch of its rival application Threads – after accusing the Facebook owner of using former Twitter staff to build its new app.
Framed as Mark Zuckerberg’s “friendly” alternative to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, Threads was launched on 6 July and has already received over 50m sign-ups.
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Twitter attorney Alex Spiro has accused Zuckerberg’s company of hiring dozens of Twitter employees with “access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information,” according to a letter seen by the BBC.
Spiro penned a letter to Zuckerberg on 5 July accusing Meta of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” to develop Threads.
The attorney slammed Threads as a “copycat” app to Twitter and threatened the possibility of legal action against Meta.
“Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice,” the letter read.
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By GlobalDataMeta has denied these allegations, with its spokesperson Andy Stone writing on Threads: “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing”.
A former Twitter staff member reportedly told Reuters that they were not aware of any employees working on Threads.
Zuckerberg and Musk, whose companies are constantly battling for market space, have been unapologetically CEO rivals for months now.
Both CEOs have been using their respective platforms to take jibes at eachother.
Following the launch of Threads, Musk wrote: “Competition is fine, cheating is not”.
Musk himself came out of an 11-year Twitter retirement to post a popular Spiderman meme, celebrating the similarities between his new app and Musks.
Musk previously tweeted: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”
Threads undoubtedly looks extremely similar to Twitter, operating as a short text-based social media platform decked out with the familiar retweet, reply and like buttons.
The Facebook founder described his new app as “an open and friendly public space for conversation.”
“I think the world needs this kind of friendly community, and I’m grateful to all of you who are part of Threads from day one,” Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram following its launch.
