Twitter threatens to sue Meta for unlawfully using co's trade secrets and IPs for “copycat” app Threads

Just hours after its global launch, Instagram’s text-based conversation app, Threads, has come under the radar for Twitter has threatened to take legal action against Meta for unlawfully using Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” app.

According to a Wednesday letter obtained by Semafor, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Twitter, had written to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, accusing the tech giant of indulging in unlawful practices.

The app, which was created by the company's Instagram team, which had registered over 10 million+ signups in just seven hours of its launch, arrives at a time when many are looking for Twitter alternatives to escape Elon Musk's raucous oversight of the platform since acquiring it last year for $44 billion.

Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Stone, responded to the report of Spiro's letter on Threads Thursday afternoon, writing, “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee that's just not a thing.”

In the letter, which Semafor first reported on Thursday, he stated that Twitter “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights” and noted the company's right to seek civil remedies or injunctive relief. 

He further added that the letter marked a “formal notice” for Meta to preserve documents relevant for a potential dispute between the companies.

As reported on NewsDrum, the Associated Press reached out to Spiro and Twitter on Thursday for further information, to which Twitter had responded with a poop emoji which apparently seems to be its standard automated response to reporters.

Musk hasn't directly tweeted about the possibility of legal action, but he has replied to several snarky takes on the Threads launch.

However, Musk has responded to one tweet suggesting that Meta's app was built largely through the use of the copy and paste function, with a laughing emoji.

Linda Yaccarino, CEO, Twitter, has also not publicly commented on Wednesday's letter, but has seemingly appeared to address Threads' launch in a Thursday tweet where she mentioned, “We're often imitated -- but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”

Still, some analysts say Meta's new app could be a significant headache for Twitter pointing to the excitement surrounding Threads' launch and impressive download numbers so far.

Success for the app isn't guaranteed, of course. Industry watchers point to Meta's track record of starting standalone apps that were later shut down, for example, and note that Threads is still in its early days so time will tell.

Meta's new app has also raised data privacy concerns. While Threads launched in more than 100 countries as of now, it is notably unavailable in the European Union, which has strict data privacy rules. 

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