'Competition is fine, cheating not': Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads app

Threads, launched by Meta to beat out struggling Twitter, has run into legal trouble just hours after its launch. Elon Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro has written to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of "unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property.

Competition is fine cheating not Elon Musk Twitter threatens to sue Meta over new Threads app gcw

Team Newsable

First Published Jul 7, 2023, 8:44 AM IST | Last Updated Jul 7, 2023, 8:44 AM IST

Twitter has threatened to sue Meta Platforms (META.O) over its new Threads platform in a letter sent to the Facebook parent's CEO Mark Zuckerberg by Twitter's lawyer Alex Spiro. By using the billions of Instagram users, Meta, which began Threads on Wednesday and has had more than 30 million sign-ups, hopes to compete with Elon Musk's Twitter.

Spiro, in his letter, accused Meta of hiring former Twitter employees who "had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information," according to various media reports.

Twitter demands that Meta should stop exploiting any Twitter trade secrets or other highly private material immediately now and stated in the letter that it plans to rigorously pursue its intellectual property rights.

Also Read | Realme Narzo 60 5G, Narzo 60 Pro 5G launched: 5 things to know before buying it

Musk, in response to a tweet citing the news said, "Competition is fine, cheating is not." In an effort to defend themselves, Meta said that none of the engineers at Threads previously worked for Twitter.

Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta. Mastodon and Bluesky, among others, have competed with Twitter since Musk took control of the social media network in October. However, the user interface of Threads is similar to the microblogging service. On Threads, people can post text and links and reply to or repost messages from others - an offering similar to Twitter's. Still, Threads does not support keyword searches or direct messages.

Instagram and Facebook, both of which are owned by Meta, have a long history of successfully ripping off the goods of fledgling online rivals. The company's Reels feature was a ripoff of the popular video app TikTok, and its Stories vanishing updates mimicked Snapchat's ascension.

Also Read | Threads app is now live! Here is how you can sign-up and link to your Instagram account