In a recent development, social media giant Twitter has reportedly threatened legal action against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over the release of its Threads app.
The Threads app, launched by Meta on Thursday as part of its suite of social networking applications, allows users to engage in threaded conversations and discussions.
The app’s concept bears similarities to Twitter’s core functionality, where users can reply to and conversationally build upon existing tweets.
The conflict arises as Twitter claims that the Threads app infringes upon its intellectual property rights and violates certain terms of use.
Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property, according to a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg published by Semafor from Twitter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro.
Twitter, according to Spiro, “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.”
“Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta,” Spiro said.
Spiro also accuses Meta of recruiting numerous former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”
He alleges that these employees were assigned by Meta to develop the Threads app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.
