In a brewing dispute between social media giants, Twitter has issued a threat to sue Meta following the launch of its Threads app, which swiftly attracted millions of users. Twitter alleges that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, engaged in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter’s trade secrets, intellectual property, and data scraping. The legal communication from Elon Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, to Mark Zuckerberg indicates a potential high-stakes legal battle over the Threads app.
Citing news outlet Semafor, Twitter Daily News reported that Twitter claimed Meta violated its intellectual property rights. In a letter shared by Spiro, Twitter expressed “serious concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
The letter further asserted that Twitter intends to rigorously enforce its intellectual property rights and demanded that Meta immediately cease the use of any Twitter trade secrets or highly confidential information.
Meta’s launch of Threads, a text-based conversation app aimed at competing with Twitter, achieved remarkable success within 24 hours. According to The Guardian, Threads amassed a staggering 30 million sign-ups in its initial hours, making it potentially the fastest-downloaded app in history. Leveraging the seamless integration with Instagram profiles, Threads enjoyed the advantage of a built-in user base, mimicking Twitter’s functionality.
Mark Zuckerberg commented on the launch, describing Threads as Meta’s attempt to create a “public conversations app with 1bn+ people” – an opportunity that he believes Twitter has yet to fully exploit. Zuckerberg expressed his satisfaction with Threads’ initial performance, stating, “This is as good of a start as we could have hoped for!” in a Twitter thread.
In its cease-and-desist communication, Twitter accused Meta of poaching numerous former Twitter employees over the past year, some of whom had access to Twitter’s trade secrets and highly confidential information. The letter also alleged that many of these employees “improperly” retained Twitter documents or electronic devices.
“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,” the letter asserted. Twitter contended that such actions violated state and federal laws, as well as the ongoing obligations of these employees to Twitter.
Furthermore, Twitter emphasized that Meta was explicitly prohibited from scraping data from any Twitter service, implying that the company may have violated this prohibition.
The escalating conflict between Twitter and Meta underscores the intensifying competition within the social media landscape. As both companies vie for dominance in the market, the legal battle over Threads could have significant ramifications for the future of digital communication platforms.
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