Twitter Threatens Meta Over Threads, May Sue Over Intellectual Property Concerns – News18

Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over its new Threads platform, US-based publication Semafor reported on Thursday, citing a letter sent to its head Mark Zuckerberg by Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro.

On its debut day, Meta’s newly launched Threads app garnered 30 million users, according to Zuckerberg. The app is being positioned as a “friendly” competitor to Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk last year.

“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 in the letter.

Twitter Threat over Trade Secrets

In his letter, Spiro accused Meta of hiring former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information,” the report said.

Since Musk’s takeover of the social media platform, Twitter has seen competition from Mastodon and Bluesky among others. Threads’ user interface, however, has a striking resemblance to the microblogging platform.

The app, billed as the text version of Meta’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available Wednesday night to users in more than 100 countries — including the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan.

Threads, which Meta says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.” However, the new app has also raised data privacy concerns and is notably unavailable in the European Union.

Twitter CEO Swipe at Threads

On Friday, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino criticized Meta’s newly launched rival, saying that the microblogging community “can never be duplicated.”

Yaccarino, appointed by Elon Musk as his successor, highlighted Twitter’s role in witnessing historical events, accessing real-time information, sharing opinions, and fostering a community.

“Whether you’re here to watch history unfold, discover REAL-TIME information all over the world, share your opinions, or learn about others — on Twitter YOU can be real. YOU built the Twitter community,” she said.

“And that’s irreplaceable. This is your public square. We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated,” Yaccarino concluded.

Prior to its release, Musk had reacted to a tweet about Threads, stating: “Thank goodness they’re so sanely run”.

The release of Meta’s new app adds another chapter to the ongoing rivalry between billionaires Musk and Zuckerberg. The two have previously expressed a willingness to meet in a fighting cage to settle their differences.

(With agency inputs)