Twitter threatens to sue Meta over copying Threads

Twitter is threatening to sue Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over its new app Threads, Twitter's so-called killer app. According to an official warning letter obtained by Semafor, Twitter claims Meta violated intellectual property rights by poaching former Twitter engineers to build its new microblogging platform. Meta denies these allegations and claims that no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee. Twitter owner Elon Musk also accuses Meta of cheating.

In the letter addressed to the head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter points out that it "has serious concerns" that the Facebook and Instagram-maker "engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation." The letter further reads:

"Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees. Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter, that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter, and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices. With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta's copycat "Threads" app with the specific intent that they use Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Mcta's competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees' ongoing obligations to Twitter."

Twitter urges Meta to preserve any documents relevant to a dispute between Twitter, Meta and former Twitter employees who now work for Meta.

After the letter went public, Elon Musk addressed Meta's Twitter imitator Threads. He tweeted, "Competition is fine, cheating is not."

The Semafor report also cites Meta's response, with the latter denying the accusations. Meta's attorney, Andy Stone, notes: "Nobody on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee; that's just not a problem.

Meta launched earlier this week following Twitter's chaotic decision to ban users from viewing (now inverted) posts without an account. Twitter also put a limit on the number of tweets users can see per day. The limit differs substantially for regular non-paying Twitter users and Twitter Blue subscribers. Relying on the timing, the Threads app launched as the most prominent Twitter alternative. Within 24 hours of launch, the platform reached 30 million registrations, Zuckerberg announced. As of May 2022, Twitter had 229 million monthly active users.

The Threads app takes direct inspiration from Twitter, though it needs some features added to the platform. For example, Threads users cannot post long videos or start a common chat room, similar to Twitter spaces. There is also no option to send DM (direct messages) in Threads.

With Agency Inputs