Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta’s New App, Alleges Intellectual Property Violation
Jason Cohen on July 6, 2023
Hours after tech giant Meta introduced the Threads social media app Wednesday, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro threatened in a letter to sue the company over “intellectual property rights,” according to Semafor.
Threads is a text-based app similar to Twitter that Meta reportedly rushed to release due to Twitter’s recent struggles, according to Axios. The letter, originally obtained by Semafor, is addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with Twitter owner Elon Musk copied, and it alleges that Meta hired numerous ex-Twitter employees to create Threads as a “copycat” app, using Twitter’s confidential information.
“Twitter 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,” Spiro wrote. “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.”
The letter characterizes Meta’s app development as a “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.” It also states that Meta “hired dozens of Twitter employees” recently.
Meta responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment referring to its policy communications director Andy Stone’s Threads post on Thursday asserting, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”
Zuckerberg announced that Threads already had 30 million sign-ups as of Thursday morning.
A Twitter user posted that the Threads logo looks like a tapeworm on Thursday. Musk responded, “Metaphorically too.”
The Threads app will be the strongest Twitter competitor since Musk assumed control of the company in October, according to Axios. Musk announced that there will temporarily be limits on the number of posts users can view per day on Twitter on Saturday; verified accounts can view 6,000 posts each day, unverified accounts 600 posts per day and newly unverified accounts 300 posts per day.
Twitter responded to the DCNF’s request for comment with a poop emoji, its automatic response to all press emails.
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