Twitter says Threads stole its IP, sends legal threat to Facebook parent Meta

Twitter has sent a ineligible informing to its rival Meta, Semafor said connected July 6.

Meta — the genitor institution of Facebook and Instagram — antecedently launched its Threads app. The merchandise has been wide described arsenic Twitter rival oregon “Twitter killer,” thing that Twitter itself has taken enactment of.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Twitter, sent a missive to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pursuing the platform’s launch. That missive calls Threads a “copycat” app and says:

“Based connected caller reports regarding your precocious launched ‘Threads’ app, Twitter has superior concerns that Meta … has engaged successful systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s commercialized secrets and different intelligence property.”

Spiro besides contended that Meta deliberately hired galore erstwhile Twitter employees. Those employees, Spiro asserted, utilized commercialized secrets and wrong accusation to beforehand the improvement of Threads. Those actions would interruption some authorities and national law, arsenic good arsenic the employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter, Spiro said.

Spiro’s missive added that Twitter is determined to “strictly enforce its intelligence spot rights” and demanded that Meta cease utilizing immoderate Twitter-derived commercialized secrets oregon confidential information. Spiro warned that Twitter reserves the close to ineligible action, including some civilian remedies and injunctive relief, to forestall further usage of its IP.

Other progressive individuals person besides commented connected the matter. Elon Musk, CTO and enforcement seat of Twitter, implicitly supported the ineligible menace successful a July 6 tweet. He wrote: “competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, denied the claims. He explicitly stated to Semafor that nary erstwhile Twitter employees are connected the Threads team.

Twitter is experiencing broader troubles

Twitter placed a complaint bounds connected viewable contented days earlier Meta’s Threads went unrecorded and said this limit was implemented to bounds bot activity.

The steadfast did not explicitly accidental it imposed the bounds successful anticipation of Threads’ launch. However, Spiro’s missive besides ordered Meta to refrain from scraping oregon crawling Twitter data, suggesting that the 2 concerns are astatine slightest adjacent to 1 another.

Twitter has experienced galore different controversies since Elon Musk acquired the institution successful October 2022. Certain issues — specifically little restrictive contented argumentation policies that immoderate reason licence hatred code — person antecedently prompted users to determination to decentralized societal media alternatives specified arsenic Mastodon.

Some crypto hopefuls judge that backlash against Twitter could payment Web3 and blockchain-based societal networks, specified arsenic Peepeth, Lens Protocol, and Damus.

The station Twitter says Threads stole its IP, sends ineligible menace to Facebook genitor Meta appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.