NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter has issued a legal threat to Meta regarding its new text-based app Threads, which has quickly gained tens of millions of users since its launch this week as a competitor to Elon Musk’s social media platform.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, attorney Alex Spiro, representing Twitter, accused Meta of unlawfully utilizing Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring ex-Twitter employees to develop a “copycat” app.
This move exacerbates the tensions between the social media giants following the unveiling of Threads on Wednesday, which targets individuals seeking alternatives to Twitter due to Musk’s unpopular changes to the platform since his $44 billion acquisition last year.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone responded on Thursday through Threads, stating, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”
In the letter, originally reported by news website Semafor on Thursday, Spiro stated that Twitter “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights” and highlighted the company’s ability to seek civil remedies or a court injunction.
He mentioned that the letter serves as a “formal notice” for Meta to retain relevant documents in anticipation of a potential dispute between the two companies.
When asked about the possibility of legal action against Meta in a tweet, Musk replied, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
The Associated Press reached out to Spiro on Thursday for additional information, while Twitter replied to a media inquiry with its customary automated response.
New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has not commented publicly on the letter, but she seemed to address the launch of Threads in a tweet.
“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated,” Yaccarino tweeted.
Some analysts suggest that Meta’s new offering, marketed as a text-based version of the photo-sharing app Instagram, could pose a significant challenge for Twitter — citing the enthusiasm surrounding Threads’ launch and its impressive number of downloads thus far.
However, success is not guaranteed. Industry experts point to Meta’s history of launching standalone apps that were eventually shut down and note that Threads is still in its early stages.
In addition to a few glitches and complaints about missing features, Meta’s new app has raised concerns about data privacy. While Threads was released in over 100 countries, it notably remains unavailable in the European Union, which has stringent data privacy regulations.