- By Bernd Debusmann Jr
- BBC News, Washington DC
Twitter is considering legal action against Meta over the app’s rapidly growing rival Threads.
The threads, which were launched to millions on Wednesday, are similar to Twitter and have been set up by Meta bosses as a “friendly” alternative.
Twitter’s Elon Musk said “competition is good, cheating is not” – but Meta denied claims in a legal letter that Twitter staff helped create the Threads.
More than 30 million people have signed up for the new app, according to Meta.
The look and feel of Threads is similar to Twitter, BBC News technology reporter James Clayton said. He said the news feed and reposting were “not very familiar”.
In a move first reported by the Semafor outlet, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday accusing Meta of “systematic, deliberate, and contrary to unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” to create Threads.
Mr Spiro specifically alleged that Meta hired dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other confidential information” which ultimately helped Meta to developing his so-called “copycat” Threads app.
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and requests that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any of Twitter’s trade secrets or other confidential information,” it said. letter
“Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice.”
BBC News, which has seen a copy of the letter, has contacted Meta and Twitter for comment.
Mr Musk said “competition is good, cheating is not” in response to a Twitter post referring to the legal letter.
On Threads, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone posted that “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s not a thing”.
Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged the rivalry with Threads, which is linked to Instagram but operates as a standalone app.
When it launched in 100 countries, Mr Zuckerberg broke more than 11 years of silence on Twitter to post a hugely popular meme of two almost identical Spider-Man figures pointing at each other , which shows a stand-off.
Shortly after, and as the word “Threads” trended around the world on his platform, Mr Musk said: “It’s better to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than to indulge in false happiness in secret- the-sick Instagram.”
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a tweet on Thursday that while the platform, which previously reported about 260 million monthly users, was “often imitated” it “can never be duplicated”.
Both Meta and Twitter have made significant layoffs this year, with Meta announcing in April that it would cut staff levels by approximately 10,000.
Twitter has lost a large portion of its 7,500 employees, as many as 80%, in waves of redundancies following Mr Musk’s takeover in October.
