TWITTER has reportedly threatened to sue Meta over its new “copycat” Threads app.
Mark Zuckerberg’s so-called “Twitter-killer” app launched this week and already has more than 30million subscribers.
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Threads – which is an offshoot of Instagram – is a text-based app that directly rivals Twitter.
Now Semafor reports that Twitter has accused Meta of “poaching” former employees to create its app.
Lawyers for Twitter reportedly sent a letter to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the company of intellectual property theft.
In the letter obtained by Semafor, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro allegedly wrote: “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.
“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.”
It reportedly accused Meta of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.
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The letter claims that Meta hired dozens of former Twitter employees who had access to confidential information, according to Semafor.
Twitter lawyers also describe Threads as a “copycat app” according to the report, and warn that Meta is “in violation of both state and federal law”.
Tesla boss Elon Musk bought Twitter on October 27, 2022 for $44billion, and held CEO position until he was replaced in June by former NBC exec Linda Yaccarino.
Meta reportedly came up with the idea for Threads in November 2022, according to the New York Times – before beginning work on the project in January this year.
Facebook founder Zuckerberg posted his first tweet on Twitter in 11 years, sharing a popular Spider-Man meme just as Threads was launched.
The not-so-subtle meme plainly jokes that Twitter and Threads are similar.
Separately, Musk replied with a laughing emoji to a tweet that reads: “Meta’s new app was built entirely using this keyboard.”
The tweet includes an image of a keyboard with three keys – CTRL, C, V – which are used to copy and paste on a Windows PC.
The U.S. Sun has asked both Meta and Twitter for comment and will update this story with any response.
Twitter’s press office replied with a poop emoji – an automated response that was switched on in March 2023.
Semafor reported that a Meta source described the accusations as “baseless”.
They continued: “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.”
Twitter debuted in July 2006, and has an estimated 450million monthly active users.
What is Meta’s Threads app?
Meta’s Threads app is described to be a “text-based conversation app” according to Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” the app’s description reads.
The app is linked to Instagram, but offers Twitter-like microblogging.
Users are allowed to post up to 500 characters of text and up to five minutes of video and links, as well as pictures.
The app is linked directly to Instagram – and lets you import your profile and friends list.
However deleting your Threads profile also means getting rid of your Instagram account, which has caused frustration among early users.
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